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Photographic 

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CIHM/ICMH 

Microfiche 

Series. 


CIHM/ICMH 
Collection  de 
microfiches. 


Canadian  institute  for  Historical  Microreproductions  /  Institut  canadien  de  microreproductions  historiques 


Technical  and  Bibliographic  Notes/Notes  techniques  et  bibliographiques 


The  Insti'iute  has  attempted  to  obtain  the  best 
original  copy  available  for  filming.  Features  of  this 
copy  which  may  be  bibliographically  unique, 
which  may  alter  any  of  the  images  in  the 
reproduction,  or  which  may  significantly  change 
the  usual  method  of  filming,  are  checked  below. 


D 


D 
D 


D 


Coloured  covers/ 
Couverture  de  couleur 


I     I   Covers  damaged/ 


Couverture  endommag6e 

Covers  restored  and/or  laminated/ 
Couverture  restaurAe  et/ou  peiliculAe 

Cover  title  missing/ 

Le  titre  de  couverture  manque 

Coloured  maps/ 

Cartes  giographlques  en  couleur 

Coloured  !nl<  (i.e.  other  than  blue  or  black)/ 
Encre  de  couleur  (i.e.  autre  que  bleue  ou  noire) 

Coloured  plates  and/or  illustrations/ 
Planches  et/ou  illustrutions  en  couleur 


n 


Bound  with  other  material/ 
ReliA  avec  d'autres  documents 

Tight  binding  may  cause  shadows  or  distortion 
along  interior  margin/ 

La  reliure  serr6e  peut  causer  de  I'ombre  ou  de  la 
distortion  le  long  de  la  marge  intdrieure 

Blank  leaves  added  during  restoration  may 
appear  within  the  text.  Whenever  possible,  these 
have  been  omitted  from  filming/ 
II  se  peut  que  certaines  pages  blanches  ajout6es 
lors  d'une  restauratlon  apparaissent  dans  le  texte, 
mais,  lorsque  cela  Atait  possible,  ces  pages  n'ont 
pas  At6  film6es. 

Additional  comments:/ 
Commentaires  supplAmentaires; 


Linstitut  a  microfilm^  le  meilleur  exemplaire 
qu'il  lui  a  4t4  possible  de  se  procurer.  Les  details 
de  cet  exemplaire  qui  sont  peut-Atre  uniques  du 
point  de  vue  bibliographique,  qui  peuvent  modifier 
une  image  reproduite,  ou  qui  peuvent  exiger  une 
modification  dans  la  mithode  normale  de  filmage 
sont  indiquAs  ci-dessous. 


I      I    Coloured  pages/ 


D 


Pages  de  couleur 

Pages  damaged/ 
Pages  endommagies 

Pages  restored  and/ji 

Pages  restaur6es  et/ou  pelliculAes 

Pages  discoloured,  stained  or  foxei 
Pages  d6color6es,  tachet^es  ou  piqu^as 

Pages  detached/ 
Pages  d^tach^es 

Showthrc    rh/ 
Transparencti 

Quality  of  prir 

Qualiti  inigale  de  I'impression 

Includes  supplementary  materii 
Comprend  du  matiriei  suppKmentaire 

Only  edition  available/ 
Seule  Edition  disponible 


I     I  Pages  damaged/ 

I      I  Pages  restored  and/ or  laminated/ 

|~~|  Pages  discoloured,  stained  or  foxed/ 

I     I  Pages  detached/ 

I      I  Showthrc    ih/ 

I      I  Quality  of  print  varies/ 

I      I  Includes  supplementary  material/ 

I — I  Only  edition  available/ 


Pages  wholly  or  partially  obscured  by  errata 
slips,  tissues,  etc.,  have  been  refilmed  to 
ensure  the  best  possible  image/ 
Les  pages  totalement  ou  partiellement 
obscurcies  par  un  feuillet  d'errata,  une  pelure, 
etc.,  ont  6t*  fllm6es  A  nouveau  de  fa^on  A 
obtenir  la  meilleure  image  possible. 


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This  item  is  filmed  at  the  reduction  ratio  checked  below/ 

Ce  document  est  film6  au  taux  de  rMuction  indiqui  ci-dessous. 

10X  14X  18X  22X 


26X 


30X 


12X 


16X 


20X 


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28X 


32X 


» 

tails 
t  du 
odifiar 
una 
maga 


■* 


Tha  copy  filmad  hara  has  baan  raproducad  thanks 
to  tha  ganarosity  of: 

Library  Division 

Provincial  Archives  of  British  Columbia 

Tha  imagas  appaaring  hara  ara  tha  bast  quality 
posslbia  considaring  tha  condition  and  lagibllity 
of  tha  original  copy  and  in  kaaping  with  tha 
filming  contract  spacifications. 


Original  copias  in  printad  papar  covars  are  filmad 
beginning  with  tha  front  covar  and  ending  on 
tha  last  page  with  a  printad  or  illustrated  impres- 
sion, or  the  back  cover  when  appropriate.  All 
other  original  copies  are  filmed  beginning  on  the 
first  page  with  a  printed  or  illustrated  impres- 
sion, and  ending  on  the  last  page  with  a  printed 
or  illustrated  impression. 


The  last  recorded  frame  on  each  microfiche 
shall  contain  the  symbol  -^^  (meaning  "CON- 
TINUED"), or  the  symbol  V  (meaning  "END"), 
whichever  applies. 

Maps,  plates,  charts,  etc.,  may  be  filmed  at 
different  reduction  ratios.  Those  too  large  to  be 
entirely  included  in  one  exposure  are  filmed 
beginning  in  the  upper  left  hand  corner,  left  to 
right  and  top  to  bottom,  as  many  frames  as 
required.  The  following  diagrams  illustrate  the 
method. 


L'exemplaire  film*  fut  reproduit  grice  k  la 
gAnArosIt*  da: 

Library  Division 

Provincial  Archives  of  British  Columbia 

Les  imagas  suivantes  ont  At*  reproduites  avac  la 
plus  grand  soin,  compta  tenu  de  la  condition  at 
da  la  nattetA  de  l'exemplaire  film*,  et  en 
conformity  avac  las  conditions  du  contrat  de 
filmage. 

Les  exemplaires  originaux  dont  la  couvarture  en 
papier  est  imprimte  sont  film*s  en  commen^ant 
par  la  premier  pbt  et  en  terminant  soit  par  la 
darnidre  page  qui  comporte  une  empreinte 
d'impression  ou  d'illustration,  soit  par  la  second 
plat,  salon  le  cas.  Tous  les  autras  exemplaires 
originaux  sont  filmAs  en  commen^ant  par  la 
premiere  page  qui  comporte  une  empreinte 
d'impression  ou  d'illustration  et  en  terminant  par 
la  derniAre  page  qui  comporte  une  telle 
empreinte. 

Un  des  symboles  suivants  apparaitra  sur  la 
darnidre  image  de  cheque  microfiche,  selon  le 
cas:  le  symbols  —^  signifie  "A  SUIVRE",  le 
symbole  V  signifie  "FIN". 

Les  cartes,  planches,  tableaux,  etc.,  peuvent  dtre 
filmAs  A  des  taux  de  reduction  diffirents. 
Lorsque  te  document  est  trop  grand  pour  dtre 
reproduit  en  un  seul  clichA,  il  est  film*  A  partir 
de  Tangle  sup*rieur  gauche,  de  gauche  *  droite, 
et  de  haut  en  bas,  en  prenant  le  nombre 
d'images  n*cessaire.  Les  diagrammes  suivants 
illustrent  la  m*thode. 


rrata 
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^elure. 
1  * 


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rWO    KI.ONDIKKRS 


i  ,\ 


THE  KLONDIKE 
STAM  PEDE 


Hy 
TAPPAN    ADNEV 

SPECIAL   CORRESl'ONDKNT    OK    "  IIARI'KK's    WEEKIV  " 
IN    TlIK    KLONDIKE 


PROFUSEL/    ILLUSTRATED 


NEW     YORK      AND      LON  1)  O  N 
HARPER    &     J3R0T1IERS     PUBLISHERS 

I  900 


I 


i    UJ 


J^ 


C'Dpyriglit,  iSqy,  by  IIaki'Kk  it  liKdiiiERs, 

.///  rn'/lti  rtitrvtil. 


TO 

THE    NOBLE,   HARDY    PIONEERS 
OF  THE   YUKON 

THIS  i.ii UK  AcfurNT  or  somk 

TKOUBLK     rill-.V      IIAVK     (ArsKl) 

Id  DcOlcatcO  bs 

THF.   AUTHOR 


47033 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  I 

Arrival  of  Excelsior  and  Portland  with  Treasure  and  News  of  Great 
Strike-Excitement  that  Followed,  and  the  Stampede  .or  Klon- 
dike 


CHAPTER  H 

OutilttinK  in  Victoria— Departure— Incidents  on  the  Steamer— Prep 


arations  for  Landing  at  Skagway 


II 


CHAPTER  HI 

Landing  at  Skagway— Excitement  and  Hardships  and  Confusion— 
A  New  City— Duty  on  Horses— First  Glimpse  of  the  Trail— Skag- 
way River-At  the  "  Foot  of  the  Hill"— Horses  Down  .     .       39 

CHAPTER  IV 

Pack-horses  go  to  Dyea-Life  in  Skagway -Experiences  of  Old- 
Timers-Start  on  the  Skagway  Trail-Terrors  of  the  Trail--Dead 
Horses-Mud  and  Rocks-Terrible  Condition  of  Men  and  Horses- 
—A  Nighi  Camp— Trail  Closed  until  Repairs  are  Made— Return 
to  Skagway 


f'4 


CHAPTER  V 
Departure  for  Dvea-Outfit  Destroyed  by  Tide-The  Chilkoot    or 
Dyea    Trail  — Dyea  River— Chilkoot  Indians— Trad  Open,  but 
Outfits  Stranded  for  Lack  of  Money -The  Leadbetter  Outfit- 


Packers  Seize  Horses 


87 


CHAPTER  VI 

Sheep  Camp-Its  Population-Mud  and  Rain-Hotel  Palmer-Sheep 
Camp  to  the  Foot  of  Chilkoot-" Stone  Houses "-Chmbing  Chd- 

V 


CON  T  E  N  T  S 

kitol — f)vcr  the  Summit  —  Delayed  by  Storms — Lake  I.iiKh-niaii — 
Mtial  Hiiildiiig — Ivviiteniem  ol  Departures — Lake  Hemieit — Shoot- 
ing the  Rapids — Knd  of  Skagway  Trail Page  104 

CHAPTER  VII 

Departure  from  Heniieit — Storm  on  the  Lake — Klondikcrs  Wrecked 
and  Drowned — Hig  Trout — Custom-llouse  at  Tagish  Lake — Col- 
lecting Duties  on  Outlils — Will  we  (let  Through  Before  it  Freezes? 
— Ice  in  Lake  Marsh — The  Canyon  and  White  Horse — Shooting 
the  Rai>ids — Narrow  Kscape — Accidents — Records  on  the  Trees — 
Departure  from  White  Horse — Lake  Labarge — Indian  V'illage — 
Trading — Thirty-Mile  River — Hootalinqua — Big  Salinon  River — 
Mush  Ice — Little  Salmon  River — Fierce  Trading — Thievish  Ind- 
ians— Refugees  from  Dawson — Five-Finger  Rapiils — Starvation? 
— Arrival  at  Fort  Selkirk I2y 

CHAPTER  VIII 

Former  Hudson's  Bay  Host — Present  Alaska  Commercial  Company 
Store — 'Talks  with  the  Storekeeper — More  about  the  Shortage  of 
(Jrul) — Start  froin  Fort  Selkirk — Heavy  Ice — Below  Zero — Miners 
Hauled  Out,  Waititig  for  River  to  Clear — Dangers  of  the  Heavy 
Ice — Stewart  River — Accident  in  the  Sweepers — Sixty-Mile  Post 
— "This    is  Daws(in"' 159 

CHAPTER  IX 

Klondike  "  City  " — Dawson — First  Impressions  of  the  Camp — The 
Grub  Scare,  and  Exodus 176 

CHAPTER  X 

Choosing  a  Cabin-Site — The  River  Closes — Narrow  Escapes  in  the 
Ice — A  Tyi)ical  Miner's  Cabin — House-Building  in  Zero  Weather 
— How  Cold  will  it  be  ?— The  Bonanza  Trail 193 

CHAPTER  XI 

Dogs  and  Dog-driving — The  Typical  "Malamut" — A  Dog-team 
E(iuipmeni — The  Finest  Dog-team  in  the  Klondike     .     .     .     20S 


CHAPTER  XII 

Kinds  of  Gold  Mining — Varieties  of  Gold — Methods  of  "Placer" 
Mining — "  Panning" — "  Rocking" — "  Sluicing" — First  Gold  Min- 
ing in  the  Yukon — "  Bar  Diggings" — Discovery  of  Coarse  Gold 
— Discovery  of  "Burning" — "Summer  Diggings"  and  "Win- 
ter Diggings" 226 

vi 


CONTENTS 

CHAl'TKR  XIII 
Fir>^t  View  of  the  Mines— An  Karly  Start  -Busy  S.ine  in  Hnnan/..i 
Creek— The  C.rand  Forks— A  Miner's  Hotel- First  Impressions 
of  Kidoratlo— NiK'ht  with  a  Miner— Mow  Does  it  Feel  to  be  a 
"Millionaire"?— What  is  a  Claim  Worth?— Cabin  Life  in  the 
Mines— Peculiarities  of  Old-timers— What  the  Miners  Think  of 
Klondike ^V'  253 

CHAl'TKR    XIV 

Storv  of  the  Klondike  Discovery  and  the  Stampede  from  Forty-Miii' 
and  Circle  City— Who  Discovered  the  Klondike  ?— Ill-fortune  ol 
Robert  Henderson,  the  Discoverer 275 

CHAPTER  XV 

The  Stakinj,' of  Bonanza- Luck  or  (lood  Judgment  ?— Wild  Scenes 
at  the  First  Clean-up— Lar«e  i'ans— How  Eldorado  was  Staked 
and  Named 3"7 

CHAPTER    XVI 

Midwinter— Short  of  Crub— Frontier  Institutions— The  Opera-l  louse 
—Saloons  and  Dance-Halls— A  (iloomy  Christmas— A  Winter's 
Hill  of  Fare— (i<d(l-Dust  as  Money —  Klondike  Hotels— Sickness 
—A  Strange  Funeral— Northern  Lijihts— Curious  Effects  of  Snow 
—Women  in  the  Yukon— Yukon  Order  of  Pioneers— First  News 
from  Outside— First  Letters  from  Home— Pat  Galvin- Hard- 
ships aloiiK   the  Trail 33" 

CHAPTER   XVII 

SprinR  in  the  Yukon— Last  Do^-Teams  from  Outside— Horde  of 
New-cotners  at  the  Head  of  the  River,  Waiting  for  the  Ice  to  Clo 
Out— Failure  of  the  Reindeer  Relief  Expedition— Preparing  for 
the  "  Hoom"— The  "Clean-up"  Begun— The  Klondike  Breaks 
I^„„se— Terrific  Force  of  the  Ice- The  Yukon  still  Solid— Will 
Dawson  be  Washed  Awav?— "The  Ice  is  Going  Out"— "Chec- 
hahkos!"— Eggs  a  Dollar  and  a  Half— The  "June  Rise"— Daw- 
son Under  Water 35'J 

'  ■  CHAPTER  XVIII 

Flood  at  Dawson— The  Midnight  Sun— The  New-comers— A  Vast, 
Strange  Throng— Miles  of  Boats— Plenty  of  Grub  — The  Ice- 
Cream  Business  — New-comers'  Opinion  of  Dawson  — Disap- 
pointed Men— A  Type  of  Klondiker— Magnitude  of  Preparations 
for  Business  at  St.'  Michael —  Arrival  of  the  First  Steamer  — A 

vii 


CONTENTS 


Swell  Dawson  Hotel— First  Steamer  from  the  Lakes — Magnitude 
of  the  Klondike  Stampede I'agf  ^-ji 

CHAPTER    XIX 

Hundreds  of  Miles  of  Claims — Wikl  Stampedes — VuM  I'nder  the 
Yukon — (iold  on  the  Hill-Top! — Fickleness  i>l  Fortune-  Ihe 
"Clean-up"  He>{un—Monanza  Creek  in  Summer — A  Clean-up 
on  No.  13  F-ldorado — HiKh  Pans  of  Gold  —  Rii  hesi  (Ifdund  in 
Klondike — New-cotU'Ts'  (jood-Fortune — l^'rench  ami  (loid  11  ills 
— Total  Output — HritiKiiig  U«)vvn  the  (iold — Values  of  Klondike 
Gold — Hanks — Unique  Hank-Check — Improvements  in  Methods 
of  Mining— "  King  of  the  Klondike" 3y4 

CHAPTKR    XX 

Midsummer  in  l>aws()n — Newspapers — How  W'e  Heard  the  News  of 
the  War — Fourth  of  July — Variety  Theatres — Religious  Work — 
Henevolent  Societies — Sickness — Milk  $30  u  Gallon — "Lost:  A 
Gold    Sack" 422 

CHAPTKR    XXI 
Government    in    the    Klondike — .Mining    Laws — Incompetence    and 
Corruption  of  Officials — The  Royalty  Tax — Collecting  the  Royal- 
ties— Investigati' •   of  Charges — An  Orderly  Mining  Camp  .     432 

CHAPTF.R    XXII 

Vegetation  and  Agricultural  Possibilities — Animal  Life — Hirds — Fish 
— Moscjuitoes — Native  Tribes 442 

CHAPTER    XXIII 

Last  Steamer  for  St.  Michael — Forty-Mile — "Eagle  City" — "Star" 
and  "  Seventy-Mile  "  Cities 455 

APPENDIX 465 


ILLUS"  xiATIONS 


rAfiP. 
7-r..<.  Klommrs  (l>h<.l..Kraph  by  Whee%  ,)  .     .     •     •     ^-.../-v  - 

••  Willanu'tU  "  /.,v/r7;v  Settle  (Photograph  by  Wilso  and  K.rkc)     .  ^3 

Author  in   //m/soii's   Hay  Costunu- /    ,\     ' 

l\uk-horsc  nmi  Sl.;l.^u->H'  Ifoithi^^r  /„  //„„-,/  //;,•  .,Av////,7-  J«r  Ihn.i 

(Photograph  1)V  Author) I     '     '     '     '  ^}, 

Minns    Snhpli.:<  for  h'lomiikc  (PhotoKtaph  by  Author      •     •     •  ^t 

y//,.  "/s/„;/</.r,."  Ihfartun-  (PhotoRraph  by   Flc-n,in«  Hros.)  ~S 
Mounted    roli,.-    in     StM-     rni/orm    of    Brown     Canvas,    w>ll, 

"////.«/<M'"  /M'f  (I'hotoKraph  by  Author) ^9 

7W/v//,c  ('/'//'V.'  a'hc.l..graph  by  Auth<.r)      . 30 

/V<M/,r//TV  J//7//<v/<//'vMl'hot(.Kraph   by  Auth()r) J' 

Ska^i'.oav,   Two   Weeks  Before  Our  Arrival  .     •     •     •     •     •     •     •  33 

rrimiiive  Landing  Faeililies  (Photograph  bv   Author)  •      •     •     ■  ^o 

Miners  dnardin,,'   Ont/its  Just  Landed  (PhotoKra,,h  by  Author)  4- 

A  Miner's   IVi/e  (Photograph  by  Author)    .     .     ■     ■     •     :     ■■  "^^ 

/.andin,  Goods  from   Boat  to    Wa^on  (Photograph   by-   Author)  48 
Inited    States    Custoni-liouse    and   Commissioners   Offiee,    S/cai^aO^ 

(Photograph  bv  Author) ^ 

Main  Street,  Ska,^^u'ay  (Photograph   by   Author)    .     .     .      •     •      •  53 
-../    Doetor    has    Set    Cp   an    Apotheeary  Shop'    (Photograph  b> 

Author) 

•/   Leadim:  Hotel  (Photograph  by  Author)   .     .     .     •     •     •     •     •  5/ 

();,.  MetLiofPaekh,^  Goods  to  -foot  of  the  Ihll      (Photograph  ^^^ 

bv  Author) '.  ■  v 62 

lu^tifiahle  Hesitation  (I'hotograph  by  Author) 

.4   /';v>/;^/<'  /^///'V/;w  (Phoiog.aph  by  Author) ^^ 

A    View  of  Dyea '     ".    \ in 

Packing  Over  the  /////(Photograph  l)y  Author)  ......  7-s 

On  the -Dead  Horse"  7V„// (Drawn  by  Chas.   Broughton,  from 

Sketch  by  Author) •     •     \    \.\'  _o 

Cordurov  Bridge  Aeross  the  Skagway  (Photograph  by  Author)  .  78 

An  Hourly  Oeeurrence  (Photograph  by  Author) 

IX 


I  L  L  U  vS  T  R  A  T  1  O  N  S 

TACiK 

lfou<  One  Outfit  Attempted  to    Pack   Tiinl'er  for  a  Boat  Over  the 

Trail  (Photof^raph   l)y  Author) 84 

The  Settlement  at  Dyea  (Photograph  by  Author) Sij 

"Canoe  A'avigation"  (Photograph  by  Author) 93 

Approaeliing    the    Canyon    of  the    Dyea    River    (Photograph    by 

Author) 96 

The  Ford  at  Sheep  Camp  (Photograph  by  Author) 105 

IVeighin^-  Paeks  at  Sheep  Camp  (Photograph  l)y  Author)  .  .  .  106 
At  the  Foot  of  Chilkoot  Pass     (Photograph  by  Author)     ,      .     .ill 

Lake  I.indeman iiS 

Whip-sawin:;  Boat  Lumber  (Photograph  by  Author)  .  .  .  .121 
Our  Bateau  Ready  for  L.aunehiui^  (Photograph  by  Author)  .  .123 
A  Launehiu}:;  Bee,  L.ake  IJndeman  (Photograph  l)y  Author)  .     .125 

ALiners  at  Dinner  (Photograph  by  Author) 12S 

Sailing  Do7on  L.ake  Bennett  (Drawn  by  Author) 130 

American  ALiners  Paying  Canadian    Customs-duties   (Photogra])h 

by  Author) 135 

Custom-house  at  LagisA  and  the  Colleetor,  JLr.  John  Godson  (Photo- 
graph by  Author) 137 

At  the  LLead  of  the  Canyon  (Drawn  by  Author) 140 

Running  the  IVhite  LLorse  Rapids  (Drawn  by  Author)  ....  143 
Characteristic     Vieto    on     Cpper     Yukon    River    (I'hotograph    bv 

Author) 146 

L'ae-siinile  of  a  Record  on  a  Tree  at  the  IVhite  LLorse  Ra/>ids .  .  158 
Trading-post  at  Fort  Selkirk  Looking   Towards   Yukon  from   Site 

of  Old  LLud:on's  Bay  Company  s  Post  (Photograph  by  Author)   160 

Nearing  DaTcson  (Photograph  by  Author) iC)6 

Trying  to  Land  at  Dan'son  (Photograph  by  Wheeler)  .  .  ,  .173 
Road-house,  Mouth  of  LLunker  Creek  (Photograph  by  Author)    .   175 

A'Aw/Z/v  "OVv"  (Photograph  by  Wheeler) 177 

Street  in  L)awson  (Photograph  by  Author) 179 

LLauling  IVater — Scene  on  the  Afain  Street,  Dawson  (Photograph 

by  Author) 183 

Alaska    Commercial   Company's    Store    and    IVarehouses,   with    the 
A'orth  American  Transportation  and  Trading  Company  s  Stores 

in  the  Distance  (Photograph  by  Author) 1S6 

The  Klondike  in  Summer,  L.ooking   Up  from  the    Yukon  (Photo- 
graph by  Author) 194 

L'ront   View  of  a    Typical  Miner  s  Cahin   (in    Summer),   Shoicing 

Overhanging  Front  and  Cache  (Photograph  by  Author)  .  .  199 
,/  Lumber  Team  on  Bonanza  Creek  (Photograph  by  Wheeler)  .  203 
Prospector,  with  Outfit  and  Sled,  in  Front  of  Our  Cabin  (I'hoto- 

graph  by  Author) 205 

On  the  Bonanza    'Trail  (Photograpli  by  Author) 206 

Freighter  (Photograph  by  Author) 207 


84 
93 


146 

158 

)  i6o 
160 

173 
175 
177 
179 

183 


186 

194 

199 
203 

205 
20ft 
207 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

A    ■fv/'ifa/  "  A/,i/amuf"  (Pholoirraph  by  Author) 209 

/)og-t,-ani    on    the     Yukon    (Just    Computing   a  joo-»iil.'  Journ,y)  ^ 

(Photograph  bv  VVheder) -" 

Yukon  Stove  A'i^^i^W  for  Sledi^c  Journey  (Sketch   by  Author)  .     .  212 

Klondike  Indian  Do^;  Harness  (Sketch  by  Author) .iii> 

•/■//,■  I'inest  Doi^-team  on  the  Klondike  (I'hotoRraph  by  Wheeler)  217 

/■Iskimo  Dog  Harness  (Sketch  by  Author) 220 

Hasket  Sleigh  (Sketch   by  Author) 221^ 

Doi;  Moeeasins  (Sketch  bv  Author) --3 

Klondike   Huntim:    Sno7,'-shoe   and    Trail   Snow-shoe  (Sketch  l)y 

Author) ■  ,  ■    " 

Klondike    Mui^^^ets-TTvo -thirds    Xatural   Size   (Photograph    by 

Author) -^ 

"/'(/;/ ///;/A'-"  (Photograph    l)y   Author) 221; 

"  A'oekimr"  (Photograph  bv  Author) 231 

A/akinga  '' Clean-up"  from  a  Koeker  (Phr)tograph   by  Author)  .   232 

Fortv-Mile  (Photograph  by   Wheeler) 230 

Startini;-  a  Hole  (Photograph  by  Author) 242 

Seetion  of  a  Shaft,  Winter  Drifting  (Sketch  by  Author)  .  .  .244 
Ideal  Plan  of  Creek   Claim,   Sho-a'ing  Relation   of  Pay   Streak  to 

Creek  /)f,v/ (Sketch  by  Author) 245 

Ideal  Seetion  Showing  Now  a   Claim  is  '' Cross- eut"  (Sketch  by 

Author) J  r  '   ~^^' 

A   Dump,  'With  a   Windlass  A'aised  on  Crib-work  (Photograph  by  ^ 

J.  B.'  Prather) -"^^ 

''  fiurnim,'"  (Photograph  by  Author) 250 

Cabins  and  Dumps  (Photograph  by  J.  B.  Prather)  .  .  .  .  •  254 
Lookiui^r    Towards  th     Grand  I'o>  ks  from   No.  3   Eldorado.      I  he 

Dark  Spots  on  the  Hill  on  the  left  Indicate  Lancaster  s  famous 

''Bench"  DiscoTcrv  (Photograph  by  J.  B.  Prather)  .  .  .255 
View   of  Eldorado    Looking    L'p  from    Mouth    of   French  Gulch 

(Photograph  by  J.  B.  Prather) 250 

Preparing  for  Big  Dumps  on  Eldorado{Vho[ogrii.i^\\hy].'ii.'Pvei\.\\Gr)  265 

IVash-dav  (Photograph  by  Author) 2f)i) 

A  Bottle    Window  (Sketch  by  Author) 270 

Hair-cutting  (Sketch  by  Author) 272 

Pum/'im:  the  Bucket  (Photograph  by  Author) 274 

Prospectors  in   Camp  in  Summer  (Photograph  by  Author)      .     .   276 

Robert  Henderson  (Photograph  by  Author) 27S 

Mouth  of  Klondike  Ri7>er  at    Time  of  the   Strike— Chief  Isaac  s 

Salmon  Hacks  (Photograph  by  Sether) .280 

George  W.  Carmack  (From  Photograph  by  Warren  C.  Wilkins)  2S1 
.Skool-um  Jim  (From  Photograph  by  Warren  C.  Wilkins).  .  .  282 
Discovery    Claim.   Bonanza    Creek.   .Summer  of  iSgj  (Photograph 

bv  Sether) ^ "^"^^ 

%\      ■ 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


The  Scene  of  Cur  mac  Fs  Discovery — Discovery   Claim   as   it  Ap- 
peared in  August,  iSgS  (Photograph  by  Author)     .     .     .     .291 
A    Typical  Claim  on  Eldorado — Summer  of  iSgj  (Photograph  by 

Sether) 295 

Stripping  the   Muck   off  ''Summer    Diggings"    (Photograph   by 

Author) 300 

7'ypical  Summer  Diggings  {sg Eldorado)  (Photograph  by  Author)  303 
A  J)a-iOson  Baggage  Express  (Photograph  by  II  egg)  ....  306 
Sluicing  the    Winter  Dumps  (Photograph  by  Author)    ....   310 

First  Saloon  in  J)au<son  (Photograph  by  Sether) 313 

"  Winter  Diggings"  (Photograph  by  Author) 319 

Vie7i<  from  the  Bottom  of  a  "  Cut"  Summer  Diggings  (^Xo.  12  El- 
dorado') (Photograph  by  Author) 324 

One  Million   Five  Hundred   Thousand  Dollars    1,     Gold-  dust,  in 
N'orth  American  Transportation  and  Trading  Company's  ll\jre- 

house  (Photograph  by   Robertson) 325 

IVilliam  D.Johns  on  a  ''Stampede"  (Photograph  by   Wheeler).   328 

Opening  Up  a  New  Claim  (Photograph  by  Author) 329 

Christmas  Greetings  (Drawn   by  Author) 333 

A  Dawson  Saloon  (Photograph   by  Author) 337 

"Hitting  the  Blower"  {J'aying  a  Bill  in  Gold-dust)  (Photograph 

by  Author) 343 

'Jake's,"    Where  an   Oyster  -  stew  Cost  S/J  (Photograph    by    Le 

Roy   Pelletier) 348 

A    Funeral  Procession  in  Jiawson  (I'hotograph  by   Le   Roy   Pel- 
letier)       35' 

A   "Drill"  Parka  (Sketch   by  Author) 353 

Indian    Woman  in  Fancy  Parka  (Photograph  by  Wheeler)    .     .   355 
Badge  of   Yukon  Order  of  Pioneers  (Drawn   by  Author)    .     .     .   356 
A   Thin  Black  I.ine  of  Men  Crossing  the  Summit  of  Chilkoot  Pass  3()i 
United  States  Go7'ernment  Reindeer  Relief  Expedition — /'>eer  Har- 
nessed to  Sleds 364 

Yukon  Ice-floes  (Photograph  by  Wheeler) 368 

Raft    of  House    Logs    on    the    Klondike    River    (I'hotograph    by 

Author) 371 

A   "  Chechahko's"  Scoio  (Photograph  by  Author) 373 

A   Mile  and   Three-quarters  of  Boats  (Photograph   by  Author)  .   375 

The  Water.  Front  (Photograph  by  Author) .     .   379 

Outfits  For  Sale  (Photograph   by  Author) 3S1 

Main  Street,  Dawson— July,  /cS'9/ (Photograph  by  Author).  ^<^c/V  384 
Panoramic  J'iew  of  Da7oson,   'Taken  from  the  Mouth  of  the  Klon- 
dike River — Summer,  iSgS Facing  38S 

Departure  of  Steamer  for  .SV.  JZ/V/zf/c/ (Photograph  by  .Author).  391 
"Bench"  or  Hill-side  Claims,  French  Hill,  August,  iSgS  (V\^^^u^- 

graph  by  .Author) ....       399 

xii 


2(JI 


343 


35' 

• 

353 

355 

. 

35''J 

.V 

3()i 

. 

3f'4 

368 

V 

. 

3-1 

373 

. 

375 

379 

381 

'A' 

384 

1- 

tg 

38S 

). 

391 

ILLUSTRATIONvS 

PACiE 

Joi-  and  Ben  Stale/ s  Discovery  ''Bench"  Claim  (Photograph  by 

Author) 401 

Panoramic  Vidv  0/ Bonanza  Creek  Between  Discovery  Claim  and  the 
Forks  of  Bonanza  and  Eldorado  Creeks,  in  Aus^iist,  iSc^S,  T-.oo 
Years  After  the  Discovery  (I'hotograph  by  Author)    .Pacini;  404 
Ketiiovin:r  Ri files.  Preparatory  to  ''  Cleaning-up"  (Photograph  l)y 

Author) 4»5 

''  Cleaning-iip"  Sunniier  niiri:;in,i,'s,  A'o.  j6  Eldorado  (I'hotograph 

by  Author) -  4°? 

A   Sjooo  Clean-up  (Photograph  by  Author) 409 

Dog  Pack-train  Leaving  Daioson  for  the  Mines  (Photograph  by 

Author) 415 

Loading  Boxes  of  Gold  upon  the  Steamer  for  Shipment  Out  (Photo- 
graph by  Author) 4^9 

Pack-team,  LMuled  with  Gold,  on   /unianza  Creek  (Photograph  Ijy 

Author) 421 

"  Yukon  Midnight  Sun" 423 

"  The  Klondike  Nugget" 424 

'Phe  ''Combination"    Theatre  and  /)ance-hall  (Drawn  by  Author)  427 
Government  Buildings,   Daioson  — Recording  Claims  (Photograph 

by  Author) 434 

Free  Miner's  License 43^' 

Interlocked  Moose-horns  Found  on  Stewart  A'iver  (Photograph  by 

Author) 445 

Indians'   Winter  Encampment  on  Klondike  River  (Photograph  by 

Author) 451 

Klondike  Indians  Going  After  Fallen  Moose  (Drawn  by  Author)  452 

Interior  of  Indian  Skin-house  (Drawn  by  Author) 453 

Skag7oav— February,  iSgg  (Photograph  by    Ilegg)      .     .     .Facing  456 
Map  of  the  Klondike  and  Indian  River  Go  Id- Fie  Ids   .     .     .      "       45  S 
Map  of  the  Overland  Routes  into  Alaska  and  Klondike  .     .      "       460 
Rocking  Gold  at  Ca/>e  Nome,   Oct.  j,  /Sgg  ^Photograph  by  Pills- 
bury  iS:  Cluvelantl) 4^'^ 


399 


■■i 


I 


i 


) 


THE  KLONDIKE   STAMPEDE 


CHAPTER  I 

Arrival  o{  Exce/sior  a.m\  Fori/atui  with  Treasure  and  News  of  Great  Strike 
—Excitement  tliat  Followed,  and  the  Stampede  for  Klondike 

N  the  i6th  of  June,  1897,  the  steamer 
Excelsior,  of  the  Alaska  Commercial 
Company,  steamed  into  the  harbor  of 
San  Francisco  and  came  to  her  dock 
near  the  foot  of  Market  Street.  She 
had  on  board  a  number  of  prospectors 
who  had  m  intered  on  the  Yukon  River. 
As  they  walked  down  the  gang-plank 
they  staggered  under  a  weight  of  va- 
lises, boxes,  and  bundles.  That  night 
the  news  went  East  over  the  wires,  and  the  following 
morning  the  local  papers*  printed  the  news  of  the  ar- 

*  The  Examiner  was  practically  "scooped"  on  the  first  story, 
givinir  it  only  a  few  lines;  the  Clmmhlc  and  Call,  perceiving  its 
news  value,  served  it  in  the  most  sensational  manner.  Ihe 
New  York  Herald  printed  the  Call's  story  simultaneously.  Mr. 
Hearst  of  the  New  York /^/r/w/ (and  Examiner),  telegraphed 
San  Francisco  to  know  what  was  the  matter,  and  the  ne.xt  day 
the  Examiner  plunged  in  to  make  amends  for  its  oversight. 
This  is  the  gossip  in  San  Francisco. 
A  » 


THE    KLONDIKE    vSTAMPEDE 


rival  of  the  Excelsior  with  a  party  of  returned  miners 
and  $750,000  in  gold  -  dust,  and  the  sensational  story 
that  the  richest  strike  in  all  American  mining  history 
had  been  made  the  fall  of  the  year  before  on  Bonanza 
Creek,  a  tributary  of  the  Klondike  River,  a  small  stream 
entering  the  Yukon  not  far  above  the  boundary- line 
between  American  and  Canadian  territory;  that  the 
old  diggings  were  deserted,  that  the  mines  had  been 
partially  worked  that  winter,  and  that  millions  more 
were  in  the  ground  or  awaiting  shipment. 

On  the  17th  the  Portland,  of  the  North  American 
Transportation  and  Trading  Company,  arrived  at  Seattle 
with  some  sixty  more  miners  and  some  $800,000  in  gold- 
dust,  confirming  the  report  that  the  new  find  surpassed 
anything  ever  before  found  in  the  world.  The  Seattle 
papers,  equally  alive  to  the  interests  of  their  own  city, 
as  the  outfitting- point  for  Alaska,  plunged  into  the 
story  with  sensational  fury.  If  the  stories  of  wonderful 
fortune  needed  corroboration,  there  were  nuggets  and 
sacks  of  shining  gold  displayed  in  windows  of  shops  and 
hotels.  One  hundred  and  thirty  thousand  dollars'  worth 
of  gold,  brought  by  one  man  from  the  new  diggings,  was 
displayed  in  one  window  in  San  Francisco. 

In  an  incredibly  short  space  of  time  the -inhabitants 
of  the  coast  cities  were  beside  themselves  with  excite- 
ment. "  Coast  Again  Gold  Crazy,"  was  the  Eastern  com- 
ment. A  stampede  unequalled  in  history  was  on.  The 
East  could  not  understand  its  significance. 

"  The  news  that  the  telegraph  is  bringing  the  past  few  days  of 
the  wonderful  things  of  Klondike,  in  the  land  of  the  midnight 
sun,  has  opened  the  flood-gates,  and  a  stream  of  humanity  is 
pouring  through  Seattle  and  on  to  the  golden  Mecca  of  the 
north.  It  is  a  crowd  at  once  strange,  weird,  and  picturesque. 
Some  say  it  eclipses  anything  in  the  days  of  '49.     The  good  ship 

2 


1 


■i 


1 


?:XCITEMENT    IN    THE    EAST 

Portland,  which  recently  brought  a  million  and  a  half  of  treasure 
to  this  port,  sails  for  Alaska  to-morrow  at  noon.  She  will  carry 
every  passenger  and  every  pound  of  cargo  that  she  has  the  ability 
to  transport.  The  Portland hA^  booked  for  this  passage  fifty  first- 
class  and  ninety-eight  second-class  passengers.  The  names  of  an 
ex-Governor  and  a  general  are  in  the  list.  Fifteen  hundred  pas- 
sengers are  booked  for  Alaska  for  the  overland  passage.  Every 
available  steamer  is  full.  The  steamers  Queen,  Mexico,  City  oj 
Topeka,  Al-Ki,  in  rotation,  will  sail  by  August  5th,  to  be  followed 
by  the  Willamette,  City  of  Kint^^ston,  and  City  of  Seattle,  pressed 
from  service  elsewhere." — Seattle  despatch  of  June  21st. 


The  Excelsior  was  booked  to  its  full  capacity  of  pas- 
sengers, and  ten  times  that  number  of  passengers  were 
turned  away.  From  the  Canadian  ports,  Victoria  and 
Vancouver,  every  steamer  that  could  be  taken  was  pre- 
paring to  deliver  passengers  at  Dyea,  where  the  overland 
route  began. 

Within  a  week  from  the  lixcclsiofs  arrival,  the  excite- 
ment reached  the  East.  Every  source  of  information 
about  Alaska,  or  the  route  to  be  traversed  in  getting 
there,  was  besieged  by  hundreds  and  thousands.  The 
United  States  government,  overwhelmed  by  applica- 
tions for  information,  which  it  could  not  supply,  at  once 
despatched  a  trustworthy  man  from  the  Department  of 
Labor  to  the  scene  of  the  new  strike.  The  Canadian 
government  was  better  supplied.  The  reports  of  Mr. 
William  Ogilvie,  who  was  surveying  the  boundary -line 
between  American  and  British  possessions  at  the  time  of 
the  strike,  had  reached  his  government  the  previous  win- 
ter and  spring,  and  the  details  of  the  strike  were  embodied 
in  an  official  report  dated  June  5th.  Anticipating  the 
rush  that  was  certain  to  follow,  and  with  commendable 
zeal,  the  Dominion  Council  had  organized  a  system  of 
government,  including  a  code  of  mining  laws  for  the  new 

5 


■■■ 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

district,  which  was  believed  to  be  underlaid  with  gold, 
and,  beyond  a  doubt,  was  in  Canadian  territory.  A  land 
surveyor,  with  assistants,  was  despatched  to  assume 
charge  of  the  mines,  while  customs  officers,  judges,  and 
other  officers  of  government,  including  a  military  gov- 
ernor and  a  detachment  of  northwestern  mounted  po- 
lice (to  reinforce  the  handful  already  there),  either  had 
started  or  were  to  start  at  an  early  date. 

Every  class  in  the  community  was  affected.  Com- 
panies were  formed  and  stock  offered  to  the  public 
merely  on  the  strength  of  starting  for  the  Klondike. 
Men  threw  up  good  positions  in  banks,  and  under  the 
government ;  others,  with  homes  and  families,  mortgaged 
their  property  and  started  ;  while  those  who  could  not 
command  the  one  to  two  thousand  dollars  considered  as 
the  very  least  necessary  to  success  were  grub-staked  by 
friends  equally  affected  by  the  excitement  but  unable  to 
go  in  person.  The  newspapers  were  filled  with  advice,  in- 
formation, stories  of  hardship  and  of  good  fortune  ;  but 
not  one  in  ten,  or  a  hundred,  knew  what  the  journey  meant 
nor  heeded  the  voice  of  warning.  "  There  are  but  few 
sane  men,"  says  one, "who  would  deliberately  set  out  to 
make  an  Arctic  trip  in  the  fall  of  the  year,  yet  this  is  ex- 
actly what  those  who  now  start  for  the  Klondike  are 
doing."     And  this  :  . 

"TIME  TO  CALL  A   HALT 

ONLY    A    FEW    Wll.I,    I!R    AliLK    JO    RKACH    DAWSON 
THIS   year" 


i 


i 


And  another :  ■ 

"WINTER  WILL  SOON   SET   IN   THERE 

SUFFERING    SEEMS    INEVITABLE 

IV/zai  Gold-Seekers  Must  Endure —  T/iei'r  Chief  Food  in  Winter 
is  Bear-Fat,  and  a  Hath  or  a  CJumge  of  Clothing  is  Death." 

6 


h  gold, 
A  land 
assume 
jes,  and 
iry  gov- 
itcd  po- 
ller had 

Com- 

public 

Klondike. 

ider  the 

)rtgaged 

on  Id  not 

dered  as 

taked  by 

mable  to 

dvice,  iii- 

LUie  ;  but 

ey  meant 

but  few 

et  out  to 

his  is  ex- 

idike  are 


SON, 


IE 

///  Winter 
Deathr 


NEWSPAPER    ACCOUNT    OF    KLONDIKE 

The  following  actual  newspaper  account  probably  sur- 
passes anything  ever  written  or  told  of  the  new  country. 
It  is  entirely  a  fabrication  of  a  returncil  Klondiker,  but 
its  wide  circulation  illustrates  the  credulity  of  the  gold- 
crazed  public : 

"THOUSANDS  STARVE   IN  THE   KLONDIKE 

ALMOST   2000  GRAVES   MADK   IN   THREE   YEARS 

'''.'*     ■  Hardships  Great  to  Bear 

i  ■  .*  '   •       * 

Steamship  Companies    Control    Food    Supply    and     Allow    no 

Private  Importations 

"Great  Falls,  Montana,////>'  23.— Frank  Moss,  an  old-timer 
of  this  section,  who  four  years  ago  was  one  of  a  party  of  four 
Americans  first  to  visit  the  Klondike  country,  returned  to-day, 
and  tells  a  story  of  horrors  and  starvation  seldom  equalled  even 
in  modern  novels. 

"  He  describes  Klondike  as  a  placer  camp,  seven  miles  long  and 
thirteen  miles  wide,  situated  in  a  sink  and  walled  in  by  bowlders 
of  rock  three  thousand  feet  high. 

"  Gold,  he  says,  abounds,  but  no  ordinary  man  can  stand  the 
hardships  of  the  uncivilized  region.  When  Moss  left  here  four 
years  ago  he  was  a  sturdy  fellow  more  than  six  feet  tall.  From 
hardships  and  privations  he  is  a  cripple  for  life  and  badly  broken 
in  health.  In  three  years  he  saw  more  than  two  thousand  graves 
made  in  the  Klondike  basin,  a  large  majority  dying  from  starva- 
tion, 

"The  steamship  companies  bring  in  all  the  food  and  allow  no 
private  importations;  consequently  it  is,  not  uncommon  to  go  for 
weeks  with  but  a  scant  supply,  and  for  days  entirely  without  any 
food. 

"  The  gold  brought  in  last  week  to  Seattle,  Moss  says,  does  not 
represent  the  findings  of  individual  shippers,  but  a  large  propor- 
tion was  confiscated  from  the  effects  of  those  two  thousand 
miners  who  fell  a  prey  to  the  hardships.     At  the  death  of  a  man 

7 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

possessed  of  dust  his  body  was  buried  without  a  coffin,  and  the 
dust  divided  among  those  who  cared  for  him.  With  proper  re- 
liefs established  by  the  government,  Moss  says,  gold  could  betaken 
out  at  the  rate  of  $2,000,000  a  month. 

"The  richest  strike  has  been  made  by  a  boy  twenty-one  years 
old,  named  George  Hornblower,  of  Indianapolis.  In  the  heart  of 
a  barren  waste,  known  as  Bowlder  Field,  he  found  a  nugget  for 
which  the  transportation  companies  gave  him  $5700.  He  located 
his  claim  at  the  find,  and  in  four  months  had  taken  out  more  than 
$1,000,000. 

"The  richest  section,  he  says,  is  yet  undeveloped.  It  is  one 
hundred  miles  from  Klondike,  and  is  known  as  the  Hlack  Hole 
of  Calcutta.  It  is  inhabited  by  ex-convicts  of  Bohemia,  and  mur- 
ders and  riots  take  the  place  of  law  and  order. 

"  A  few  months  ago,  Klondike  organized  a  justice  committee, 
and  its  laws  prevail  there  now. 

"  Suffering  will  be  great,  with  the  great  crowds  preparing  to  go 
to  the  scene  now.  Moss  says;  hunger  and  suffering  will  be  great 
when  added  to  the  other  hardships  to  be  overcome  by  those  who 
survive.  Moss  returned  with  $6000  in  dust,  and  will  leave  here 
to-morrow  for  his  old  home  in  Dubuque,  Iowa,  where  he  will 
spend  the  remainder  c'  his  years." 

The  Canadian  government  published  a  warning  that 
all  who  were  starting  faced  starvation,  and  should  wait 
till  spring;  that  shelters  would  be  built  on  the  way,  but 
food  could  not  be  supplied  to  those  going  in  unpre- 
pared. 

On  the  26th  of  July  the  London  Times  gave  full  par- 
ticulars of  the  strike;  on  the  28th  the  Colonial  Oi^ce  is- 
sued a  bulletin  advising  Englishmen  not  to  start,  but 
to  wait  till  spring. 

The  tide  was  too  great  to  turn.  One  by  one  the  con- 
servative papers  of  the  country,  that  had  treated  the  first 
reports  as  sensational  newsj  fell  into  line.  On  the  28th 
of  July  ti:e  Messrs.  Harper  &  Brothers  commissioned  a 

8 


■1 
■I 

I 


THE  AUTHOR   STARTS   FUR   KLONDIKE 


1 


correspondent  to  proceei  to  Dawson  to  furnish  news  and 
pictures  of  the  new  gold-fields.* 

I,  the  one  chosen  for  this  work,  spent  the  next  three 
days  getting  together  that  part  of  a  one  year's  outfit  that 
could  not  be  obtained  on  the  West  Coast,  inchuling  a  com- 
plete photographic  outfit,  comprising  a  5  x  7  long-focus 
Premo  camera;  ten  dozen  5X7  cut  films  for  use  in  plate- 
holders  (having  the  advantage  of  lightness  and  unbrcak- 
ableness) ;  and  eight  spools  of  sensitive  film,  of  tliirly- 
two  exposures  each,  for  use  in  a  ndl-holder,  and  expressly 
ordered  hermetically  sealed  in  tins;  in  addition,  a  small 
pocket  Kodak,  taking  lA  x  2-inch  pictures,  together  with 
.a  complete  developing  outfit.  Glass  plates  were  not  taken, 
on  account  of  weight  and  their  liability  to  break  in  the, 
mail. 

On  the  30th  of  July  I  purchased,  at  the  office  of  the 
Canadian  Pacific  Railway  in  New  York,  a  through  [^riutcd 
ticket  reading  "New  York  to  Dyea,"  including  passage 
on  the  steamer  Islander^  sciieduled  to  leave  Victoria  <jii 
the  15th  of  August,  on  her  second  trip. 

By  this  time  reports  had  arrived  of  an  easier  pass,  only 
four  miles  from  Dyea,  and  known  as  the  White  Pass,  with 
trail  already  constructed  and  partic  with  pack-horses 
ani-l  outfits  going  over  with  ease  to  the  head  of  naviga- 
tion on  the  Yukon,  where  boats  were  to  be  built.  At 
Montreal  I  secured,  by  telegraph,  space  on  the  [slander 
for  six  pack-horses.  At  Winnipeg  I  hurried  to  the 
Hudson's  Bay  Company's  store  for  winter  clothes  and 
furs,  but  the  town  was  already  cleaned  ')ut,  not  a  fur 
robe  nor  skin  coat  to  be  had.    Instead — and  fearing  that 


*  After  my  departure  arrangement  was  made  by  Messrs.  Harper 
tS:  Brothers  with  the  London  Chrouirlf  for  simultaneous  publi- 
cation of  the  matter  to  be  furnished. 


BTl" 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

nothing  of  the  kind  suitable  for  the  arctic  climate  would 
by  this  time  be  left  on  the  Coast — I  got  the  regulation 
capote  of  the  employes  of  the  Company,  made  of  the 
heaviest  black  duffel  reaching  to  the  knees  and  with  a 
hood;  also  twelve-pound  "four-point  "^/(^i7  blankets;  a 
variegated  yarn  sash,  such  as  is  worn  by  the  Northwest 
metis  ;  a  red-and-black  knit  tuque ;  and  the  best  moose- 
hide  moccasins ;  leaving  the  rest  of  my  outfit  to  be  pur- 
chased in  Victoria,  which  I  reached  on  August  8th. 


11 


AITHOR    1\    HUDSON  S    BAY   COSTUME 


k 


CHAPTER    II 


Outfitting  in  Victoria— Departure— Incidents  on  the  Steamer— Prepara- 
,  tions  for  Landing  at  Skagway 

;■  Victoria,  B.  C,  August  15,  1897. 

HE  streets  of  leisurely  Victoria  are 
throitged  with  strange  men,  and 
there  is  an  earnest  look  on  their 
faces  and  firmness  in  their  step. 
When    the    sealers    return    each 
autumn  there   is  another   crowd, 
but  not   like   this.      Victoria   has 
never   seen  this  crowd  before.     They  are  the  kind  of 
men  who  are  the  pioneers  in  every  new  country  ;   men 
from  every  station  of  life,  but  all  of  one  mind,  actuated 
by  one  purpose.     They  are  buying  horses,  and  watching 
men  who  in  front  of  stores  explain  the  "diamond  hitch"  ; 
they  are  buying  thick,  warm  woollens ;    belts   that   go 
around  the  waist,  with  flaps  that  button  down  over  lit- 
tle compartments  ;   little  bags  of  buckskin,  with  gath- 
ering-strings at  the  top  ;   heavy,  iron-shod  shoes,  made 
in  the  likeness  of  nothing  in  the  heavens  above  or  the 
earth  beneath,  but  strong,  durable,  and  suited  for  the 
purpose  in  view;  and  moccasins  of  moose-hide, with  socks 
as  thick  as  a  man's  hand  and  that  reach  to  the  knee. 

The  crowd  is  cosmopolitan.  It  has  gathered  from  re- 
mote points.  There  are  Scotch  and  Irish,  French  and 
German,  together    ^vith   plain  American.     Klondike  !— 

u 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

magic  word,  that  is  possessing  men  so  that  they  think  and 
talk  of  nothing  else.  Victoria  sells  mittens  and  hats  and 
coats  only  for  Klondike.  Flour  and  bacon,  tea  and  cof- 
fee, are  sold  only  for  Klondike.  Shoes  and  saddles  and 
boats,  shovels  and  sacks — everything  for  Klondike.  The 
man  who  is  not  going  by  next  boat  for  the  North,  or  who 
is  not  "waiting  till  spring,"  or  who  has  nt)t  decided  rea- 
sons for  not  going  at  all  and  why  every  one  else  should 
not  go,  must  be  a  rarity.  He  does  not  exist  in  this  town, 
so  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  discover  in  one  week's  time. 
Even  in  the  singsong  of  the  Chinaman  the  ear  will  catch 
the  sound  "  Klondike."  Boys  who  at  other  times  might 
be  impudent,  now,  with  a  look  of  wonder,  point  and  say, 
"  He's  going  to  Klondike  !"  It's  a  distinction  to  be  a 
Klondiker. 

Even  here  the  bigness  of  the  undertaking  is  realized. 
A  dozen  men  have  grasped  me  by  the  hand  and  said :  "  I 
wish  you  success.  Any  one  who  has  the  courage  to  start 
there  deserves  every  bit."  It  may  be  a  business  man,  an 
editor,  or  the  man  who  stands  at  your  back  at  the  hotel 
table.  All  are  alike  interested  ;  all  who  could  have  gone 
with  the  first  rush,  and  those  who  can  are  going  "  in  the 
spring."  They  doubt  if  one  can  get  in  now  before  it 
freezes  tight  ;  and  they  may  be  right  when  they  say  that 
hundreds,  if  not  thousands,  of  men  with  their  outfits  at 
the  Chilkoot  and  White  passes  will  camp  there  all  win- 
ter, unable  to  get  across. 

Victoria  is  awakening  to  the  realization  of  a  fact — a 
blunt,  hard,  yet  agreeable  fact.  Circle  City  and  Juneau, 
where  the  gold  has  hitherto  been  mined,  are  in  Ameri- 
can territory,  and  so  Seattle  has  practically  monopolized 
the  Alaska  outfitting  business.  But  Klondike  River  is 
in  Canadian  territory,  and  Canadian  laws  apply  to  the 
remotest  corner  of  the    Dominion,  and   every  miner's 


i 


ink  and 
lats  and 
and  cof- 
lles  and 
e.  The 
,  or  who 
ded  rea- 
should 
is  t<jwn, 
k's  time, 
ill  catch 
s  might 
and  say, 
to   be  a 

realized. 

said  :  " I 
:  to  start 

man,  an 
:he  hotel 
ave  gone 
^ " in  the 
before  it 

say  that 
nitfits  at 
;  all  win- 

i  fact — a 
.  Juneau, 
1  Ameri- 
lopolized 
River  is 
ly  to  the 
'  miner's 


OUTFITTING    IN    VICTORIA 

outfit  that  goes  across  the  boundary  -  line,  no  matter 
where,  owes  a  duty.  Why,  then,  should  not  Victoria  and 
Vancouver  do  the  business  for  Klondike,  and  thereby 
save  the  miners  the  duties?  Some  wide-av/ake  business 
men  answered  the  question  by  at  once  despatching  a 


I'ACk-lKJKSK   AM)    Sl.KDCK-DOd    WMI'IM'.    TO    I(()AK1>     lUK    SIKAMKK     I'lli 

liVKA 

man  to  Seattle  to  purchase  an  outfit  and  to   ascertain 
the  prices. 

A  miner  intending  to  go  to  Klondike  has  the  alterna- 
tive of  buying  on  the  American  side  and  paying  duty, 
or  of  buying  here.  Government,  we  are  told,  has  been 
established,  and  I  am  assured  by  the  collector  of  this 
port,  Mr.  Milne,  that  should  miners  prefer  to  bring  their 
outfits  across  the  line  they  will  be  accorded  precisely  the 


'    ;i 


1  I 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

same  treatment  at  Dawson  or  Tagish  Lake  (just  over 
the  pass  —  the  officers  left  here  two  weeks  ago)  as  in 
Victoria  or  Montreal.  "  There  is  but  one  law  for  every 
part  of  the  Dominion  of  Canada.  We  do  not  want  to 
be  severely  strict  with  the  miners,  but  you  know  how 
much  easier  it  is  to  relax  than  to  tighten."  It  is  going 
hard  with  those  American  cities  which  have  hitherto 
had  the  whole  business  of  outfitting,  but  it  should  be 
borne  in  mind  that  the  next  news  may  be  of  bigger 
finds  on  American  soil.  Events  are  moving  in  such 
rapid  succession  that  it  is  simply  bewildering,  and  one 
rubs  one's  eyes  to  make  sure  that  it  is  not  all  a  pleas- 
ant dream.  Familiar  spots  and  even  old  friends  have 
the  same  unreal  look. 

What  does  it  mean?  Some  men  have  been  digging 
with  shovels  into  the  earth  and  filling  large  pans,  and 
with  water  washing  off  the  lighter  material,  leaving  some 
heavy  yellow  metal  which,  when  gathered  in  bags  and  old 
coats,  made  a  load  that  several  men  could  not  lift.  This 
came  down  from  there  three  or  four  weeks  ago.  Now 
vessels  and  men  and  horses  and  dogs  are  set  in  violent 
motion  in  the  direction  whence  it  came.  Surely,  that  is 
a  strange  power  the  yellow  metal  has  ! 

One  who  has  never  undertaken  to  gather  all  that  a 
man  will  need  for  a  space  of  ten  or  twelve  months,  so 
that  he  shall  not  have  to  call  on  any  one  else  for  material 
assistance,  has  any  idea  of  the  time  required.  The  most 
important  item  on  the  list  is  good  advice — plenty  of  it. 
One  does  not  fully  comprehend  the  helplessness  of  aver- 
age mankind  until  he  meets  some  of  these  men  on  the 
streets.  Scores  of  men  would  never  have  gotten  one 
inch  to  the  northward  of  the  town  of  Victoria  without 
the  help  of  others.  Two  men  in  three  virtually  are  car- 
ried along  by  the  odd  man.     They  are  without  practical 

14 


1 


SOME    QUEER    OUTFITS 


1st  over 
))  as  in 
)r  every 
want  to 
ow  how 
is  going 
hitherto 
lould  be 
f  bigger 
in  such 
and  one 
a  pleas- 
ids  have 

digging 
ans,  and 
ng  some 
s  and  old 
ft.  This 
0.  Now 
n  violent 
y,  that  is 

II  that  a 
onths,  so 
material 
rhe  most 
tity  of  it. 
>  of  aver- 
n  on  the 
tten  one 
L  without 
r  are  car- 
practical 


experience;  it  is  pitiful  to  see  them  groping  like  the 
blind,  trying  to  do  this  thing  or  that,  having  no  notion 
of  what  it  is  to  plan  and  to  have  the  ends  fit  like  a  dove- 
tail. I  asked  a  Frenchman  from  Detroit  how  he  meant 
to  get  over  the  pass — was  he  taking  a  horse  ?  "Oh  no; 
there  would  be  some  way."  And  yet  he  knew  that 
every  returning  steamer  is  bringing  word  like  this, 
which  is  from  a  recent  private  letter  from  Dyea  to  a 
large  outfitter  : 

"  For  Heaven's  sake,  if  you  have  any  influence  to  prevent  it, 
do  not  let  any  one  come  here  without  horses;  hundreds  of  peo- 
ple will  be  encamped  here  all  winter,  unable  to  get  across." 

Some  queer  outfits  have  gone  north  in  the  last  few 
days.  One  man,  evidently  a  person  of  means  as  well  as 
leisure,  has  taken,  among  other  things,  one  case  of  thirty- 
two  pairs  of  moccasins,  one  case  of  pipes,  one  case  of 
shoes,  two  Irish  setters,  a  bull  pup,  and  a  lawn-tennis  set, 
I  am  told  he  is  not  a  trader,  but  going  "  just  for  a  jolly 
good  time,  you  know."  Another  man  is  taking  an  enor- 
mous ox,  and  he  created  a  sensation  leading  it  through 
town  with  a  pack-saddle  on  its  back.  He  intends  to  eat 
it.  Wise  man  !  Some  say  we  shall  have  to  eat  our 
horses. 

Knock-down  boats  of  every  conceivable  sort  are  being 
taken  up  since  the  reports  have  come  down  that  boat 
timber  is  very  scarce,  as  well  as  high  in  price. 

I  have  had  cut  out,  from  my  own  plans,  the  ribs  and 
sides  of  a  lumberman's  bateau  twenty -three  feet  long, 
five  feet  beam,  eighteen  inches  width  on  the  bottom, 
five  and  a  half  feet  overhang  in  front,  and  four  feet 
at  the  stern,  the  bottom  being  of  three  -  quarter  inch 
cedar,  the  sides  of  five-eighth  and  one-half  inch  stuff. 
It  is,  in  fact,  an  extreme  type  of  dory,  a  perfect  rough- 

»5 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 


(! 


!h 


If    'I 


water  boat,  its  flaring  sides  preventing  the  boarding  of 
waves,  its  narrow  bottom  enabling  it  to  pass  through  a 
narrow  channel.  It  is  easily  handled  with  either  pole, 
paddles,  or  oars.  I  have  roughly  calculated  that  one  ton 
will  sink  it  a  foot.  Its  actual  load  will  be  less.  But  re- 
ports are  discouraging  about  boats.  The  trails  up  the 
mountains  are  reported  so  narrow  and  tortuous  that  long 
pieces  cannot  be  carried  o .  .r.  In  that  case  I  can  cut 
the  lumber  into  sections.  It  may  never  get  over.  Hun- 
dreds of  boats,  it  is  said,  are  being  left  behind.  News  is 
contradictory,  when  it  is  to  be  had  at  all.  It  is  unsafe  to 
leave  any  precaution  untaken.  The  same  rule  applies  to 
horses.  No  one  here  for  a  moment  says  I  have  too 
many,  though  I  have  more  for  the  amount  to  be  carried 
than  any  other  outfit  that  has  left  Victoria  thus  far. 
One  outfit  of  seventy-four  horses  is  going  up  from  here 
to  carry  goods  for  the  mounted  police. 

According  to  the  Coast  papers  that  have  correspond- 
ents on  the  scene,  hope  of  getting  over  via  Chilkoot  is 
slight.  The  baggage  of  over  three  thousand  ahead  of 
us  is  stranded  at  Dyea,  unable  to  be  handled  by  the  pack- 
ers, and  all  who  can  are  starting  over  White  Pass. 

Dyea  has  been  made  a  sub-port  of  Juneau,  for  the  con- 
venience of  foreign  vessels ;  our  goods  are  billed  "Dyea," 
but  will  go  off  at  Skagway. 

THK    ROUTES   TO-DAY 

1.  Via  St.  Michael.  Ocean  steamer  to  St.  Michael,  a  distance 
of  2725  miles  (from  Seattle);  transferring  to  flat-bottomed  river- 
steamers  up  the  Yukon  River,  a  distance  to  Dawson  variously 
estimated  at  from  1298  miles  to  1600  or  J700  miles;  the  "easiest  " 
route,  but  restricted  for  river  navigation  to  the  period  from  June 
to  September. 

2.  Via   Lynn  Canal.     Two  routes,  viz.,  (a),  the   Chilkoot  trail. 

16 


I 


)E 


ROUTES    TO    KLONDIKE 


arding  of 

h rough  a 
ther  pole, 
it  one  ton 
But  re- 
ils  up  the 
1  that  long 
I  can  cut 
er.  Hun- 
News  is 

unsafe  to 
applies  to 

have  too 
be  carried 

thus  far. 
from  here 

)rrespond- 
^hilkoot  is 
.  ahead  of 
J  the  pack- 
ass. 

)r  the  con- 
d  "Dyea," 


I,  a  distance 
omed  river- 
•n  variously 
le  "easiest " 
3  from  June 

ilkoot  trail. 


From  Dyea  over  Chilkoot  Pass,  27  miles  to  Lake  Lindeman,  head 
of  navigation  of  Lewes  River,  a  main  tributary  of  the  Yukon,  and 
575  miles  to  Dawson  ;  the  trail  used  for  tiie  past  sixteen  years  by 
miners  entering  the  Yukon.  Freight  is  carried  by  hand,  but 
horses  are  used  as  far  as  the  foot  of  the  pass,  18  miles  from  Dj'ea. 
Elevation  of  pass  about  3350  feet,  {b),  The  White  Pass  trail.  Dis- 
covered by  Captain  William  Moore  ten  years  ago.  Starts  four 
miles  from  Dyea,  ascending  valley  of  Skagway  River  over  pass. 
2800  feet  elevation,  and  20  miles  distant  from  saltwater.  Beyond 
the  summit  not  really  known,  but  leading  to  one  of  two  arms  of 
Tagish  Lake.  Distance  said  to  be  not  much  greater  than  7>ia 
Chilkoot.  Vigorously  advertised  during  the  past  two  weeks  as 
a  good  horse  trail  all  the  way. 

3.  Dalton's  trail.  Overland  from  head  of  Pyramid  Harbor, 
-,'ia  Chilcat  Pass,  thence  over  rolling  grassy  country  to  point  on 
Lewes,  near  Five-Finger  Rapids,  and  to  Fort  Selkirk,  the  latter  a 
distance  of  350  miles  from  tide-water,  and  175  miles  from  Daw- 
son. Available  for  cattle  and  horses,  and  for  a  railroad.  Named 
after  its  discoverer,  John  Dalton,  a  trader. 

4.  Stikeen  route.  Starting  from  Fort  Wrangell,  thence  up  the 
Stikeen  River,  a  distance  of  about  150  miles  to  Telegraph  City 
(an  old  mining  camp).  From  thence  overland  to  head  of  Lake 
Teslin,  head  of  Hootalinqua,  or  Teslinto,  River,  a  tributary  of 
the  Lewes;  a  distance  to  Teslin  of  122  to  160  miles.  None  of 
the  new  maps  agree  where  the  trail  is,  but  the  route  is  being 
pushed  by  the  Canadian  government  as  an  all-Canadian  route  to 
the  Klondike.  A  company  has  chartered  the  only  steamer  avail- 
able at  Wrangell  and  is  taking  over  saw-mill  machinery,  build- 
ing steamers,  and  preparing  for  the  spring  "  rush  "  that  way. 

5.  F/Vj!  Edmonton.  By  courtesy  designated  a  "trail,"  The  in- 
sane desire  of  Canada  to  find  an  all-Canadian  route  to  her  new 
possessions  has  led  to  the  suggestion  as  possible  routes  those 
used  by  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company  to  reach  the  Yukon.  From 
Edmonton  a  wagon  -  road  of  96  miles  to  Athabasca  Landing; 
thence  by  small  boat,  430  miles,  to  Lake  Athabasca  ;  thence  down 
Slave  River,  across  Great  Slave  Lake,  and  down  the  Mackenzie 
River,  1376  miles,  to  the  neighborhood  of  Fort  McPherson,  near 

B  17 


im 


THE    KLONDIKE    vSTAMPEDE 

the  mouth  of  the  Mackenzie ;  tlience  up  Rat  River  and  over  an  all- 
water  connection  at  McDougall's  Pass  into  the  Porcupine ;  and 
thence  down  the  Porcupine  to  the  Yuiion,  496  miles — a  total  dis- 
tance from  Edmonton  of  2398  miles  (Mr.  William  Ogilvie's  fig- 
ures). There  the  would-be  Klondiker,  303  miles  below  Dawson 
and  against  a  hard  current,  is  practically  farther  away  from  his 
destination  than  if  at  Dyea  or  Skagway. 

The  other  "route"  from  Edmonton  ascends  the  Athabasca 
River  to  Little  Slave  Lake ;  thence  by  portage  to  Peace  River ; 
ascends  that  river  to  a  point  towards  its  source  ;  thence  overland 
by  a  ramification  of  "routes  "to  the  Liard;  up  that  river  and  thence 
by  another  portage  to  the  head  of  the  Pelly,  and  down  that  river 
to  P'ort  Selkirk;  an  exceedingly  difficult  trail,  abandoned  forty 
years  ago  by  the  company  that  first  discovered  its  existence. 

The  above  briefly  describes  the  "  trails  "  by  which  the  Cana- 
dians, the  merchants  of  Edmonton,  and  the  Canadian  Pacific  Rail- 
way propose  to  start  human  beings  for  the  Yukon.  It  has  been 
termed  "the  Athabasca  back-door  route."  By  the  same  token 
there  are  as  many  other  "  routes  "  to  the  Yukon  as  there  are 
water-ways  in  the  northwest  of  Canada  between  Montreal  and 
the  Rocky  Mountains.  • 


'.m 


\ 


The  horses,  alleged  to  be  pack-horses,  that  are  being 
brought  into  Victoria  for  sale  amuse  every  one  greatly. 
There  are  ambulating  bone-yards,  the  infirm  and  decrep- 
it, those  afflicted  with  spavin  and  spring-halt,  and  many 
with  ribs  like  the  sides  of  a  whiskey-cask  and  hips  to  hang 
hats  on.  With  their  drooping  heads  and  listless  tails, 
they  are  pictures  of  misery.  Yet  they  are  being  bought 
to  pack  over  the  hardest  kind  of  trail.  Why,  some  of 
them  at  the  Hudson'.?  Bay  Company's  wharf  look  as  if  a 
good  feed  of  oats  would  either  break  their  backs  or  make 
them  sag  beyond  remedy,  while  their  legs  seem  barely 
able  to  support  their  bodies.  They  are  br.ought  in  from 
all  qtiarters  of  Vancotiver  Island  and  the  mainland.  Till 
now  they  have  been  without  value  or  price.     Twenty- 

18 


JE 


OUTFITTING    AT    VICTORIA 


over  an  all- 
upine ;  and 
—a  total  dis- 
)gilvie's  fig- 
low  Dawson 
ay  from  his 

2  Athabasca 
eace  River ; 
ice  overland 
rand  thence 
vn  that  river 
idoned  forty 
xistence. 
:h  the  Cana- 
Pacific  Rail- 
It  has  been 
;  same  token 
as  there  are 
Montreal  and 


it  are  being 
)ne  greatly, 
and  decrep- 
:,  and  many 
lips  to  hang 
istless  tails, 
jing  bought 
by,  some  of 
look  as  if  a 
::ks  or  make 
;eem  barely 
ght  in  from 
tiland.  Till 
;.     Twenty- 


five  dollars  up  is  the  invariable  price  asked,  and  it  is 
huiicroiis  to,  see  some  of  their  owners,  who  a  month  ago 
would  have  fainted  in  their  tracks  at  the  sight  of  five 
dollars,  now,  when  you  ask  the  price,  shift  about,  swallow 
once  or  twice,  and  say,  "  Twenty-five  dollars."  "  Thirty 
dollars  "  means  that  the  owner  has  a  pretty  fair  horse, 
|)r()l)ably  an  old  packer  ;  but  "twenty-five"  dollars  now 
in  X'ictoria  means  that  much  clear  profit,  and  they  have 
plenty  of  takers.  The  pack-saddles  are  five  to  six  dol- 
lars, without  the  lash  -  ropes,  but  w'th  the  extra  cinch. 
In  front  of  the  saddlery  -  stores  groups  of  intending 
miners  watch  some  old-timer  explaining  the  mysteries 
of  the  "diamond  hitch."  A  man  is  a  tenderfoot  out  here 
until  he  can  throw  the  diamond  hitch,  the  only  hitch 
that  will  hold  the  load  on  a  horse's  back.  The  "squaw 
hitch,"  however,  does  for  side  packs  and  is  simple. 

It  is  rare  amusement  to  a  tenderfoot,  getting  together 
a  [)ack-train.  A  little  knowledge  of  horses  helps,  but  I 
suppose  one  should  not  expect  too  much.  As  long  as  one's 
pack-train  looks  positively  no  worse  than  one's  neighbor's 
he  does  not  mind.  Although  he  may  have  a  spotted  cay- 
use  as  big  as  a  sheep  alongside  a  hfteen-hand  rawboned 
roan  mare,  no  one  is  expected  to  do  any  better  with  the 
time  and  material  at  command.  Victorians  believe  that 
next  spring  there  will  be  a  wholly  better  lot  of  horses  ;  they 
do  not  believe  the  present  supply  of  wrecks  will  last  any 
longer.  My  packers  consist  of  a  black  with  a  bone-spavin 
which  causes  him  to  throw  his  leg  crossways  when  he 
trots;  his  mate  is  a  small  bay  pony,  narrow-chested; 
then  there  is  a  white-faced  "pinto,"  a  large  roan  mare, 
and  a  bully  little  packer  nearly  two  feet  lower  than  the 
old  roan.  Her  name  is  Nelly,  the  only  name  I  could 
get  of  any  of  my  horses.  The  sixth  one  is  a  nonde- 
script— just  a  thin  sorrel  horse.     They  make  a  brave 

'9 


lis  ' 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

show  with  their  new  pack-saddles  and  coils  of  new  lash- 
ropes. 

How  to  handle  this  formidable  outfit  was  a  question, 
until  I  ran  afoul  of  two  fellows  bound  also  for  Dawson. 
I  met  them  on  the  trnin  over  and  sized  them  up.  They 
were  with  a  contingent  from  Detroit.  Jim  McCarron  had 
been  a  trooper  in  the  Seventh  United  vStates  Cavalry,  and 
young  Burghardt  was  travelling  on  his  ability  to  cook, 
being  the  son  of  a  baker  and  a  baker  himself.  Jim  was 
used  to  handling  horses,  though  he  did  not  pretend  to 
know  how  to  pack  any  more  than  I  did. 

Burghardt  did  claim  he  could  bake  bread.  I  asked  him 
if  he  thought  we  were  going  to  live  on  nothing  but  bread. 
These  two  men  were  able  to  take  but  one  horse  each. 
These  they  bought  in  Victoria.  Then  we  joined  forces 
for  Klondike  on  the  following  conditions  :  they  were  tf) 
take  entire  charge  of  my  horses,  and  were  to  undertake 
to  put  my  whole  outfit  across  the  pass  first,  so  as  to  leave 
me  as  free  as  possible  for  my  newspaper  work.  Then, 
while  I  put  together  my  boat,  and  another  for  them,  the 
lumber  for  which  they  were  taking  up  from  here,  they  were 
to  take  the  whole  eight  horses  and  pack  their  own  outfits 
over.  With  them  was  a  Dutchman,  large,  thick,  slow,  but 
strong  as  a  horse,  and  with  one  eye.  He  had  a  horse  too, 
but  it  was  not  part  of  my  outfit. 

In  the  way  of  food  supplies,  the  dealers  here  have  long 
lists  of  canned  goods,  from  which  all  tastes  can  be  suited. 
But  I  intend  to  stick  as  closely  as  possible  to  the  merest 
essentials.  Lumbermen  know  what  a  man  can  live  and 
grow  fat  on  out-of-doors,  and  so  does  the  United  States 
army.  There  is  something  about  pork,  flour,  beans,  and 
tea  that  makes  it  easy  to  add  the  rest.  As  to  clothing, 
rubber  hip-boots  and  an  oil-skin  coat  are  necessary.  For 
the  long,  cold  winter,  misapprehension  exists.    Those  best 


ni'w  lash- 

(|uestioti, 
Dawson, 
ip.  They 
'arron  had 
vah'y,  and 
V  to  cook, 
Jim  was 
)retend  to 

asked  him 

but  bread. 

lorse  each. 

ned  forces 

ey  were  to 

undertake 

as  to  leave 

rk.     Then, 

r  them,  the 

e,  they  were 

own  outfits 

k,  slow,  but 

X  horse  too, 

3  have  long 
1  be  suited, 
the  merest 
in  live  and 
ited  States 

beans,  and 
:o  clothing, 
ssary.    For 

Those  best 


4, 


WHAT    A    K  L  ( )  N  1)  I  K  V.  R    X  )•:  IC  1)  S 

(|iKilified  to  express  an  o{)inion  say  that  there  is  iiothini; 
l»i'tter  than  a  deer-skin  coat  with  hood — an  Eskimo  gar- 
ment, called  II />(irhi.  Then,  one  should  have  a  fur  robe; 
one  good  robe  is  better  than  any  number  of  blankets, 
and  should  be  7  x  8  feet.  In  the  order  (^f  preference, 
arctic  hare  is  first.     Next  is  white  rabbit,  the  skins  being 


MINKRS'    SLl'l'LlKS    WAIllNt;    TO    UK    I.O.MiKi)    luK    KI.U.NDIKK 

cut  into  strips,  then  plaited  and  sewed  tcjgether.  One 
needs  nothing  else  in  the  coldest  weather,  although  one 
can  thrust  one's  fingers  through  it.  Both  rabbit  and 
hare  robes  are  scarce  and  last  only  a  year.  Lynx,  fox, 
wolf,  marmot,  make  good  robes  ;  bear  is  almost  too  heavy 
for  travelling.  I  was  fortunate  indeed  to  pick  up  even  a 
marmot-skin  robe, eight  feet  long  and  five  wide,  lined  with 
a  blanket,  Indian-made,  from  somewhere  up  the  coast. 
The  following  are  the  goods  commonly  taken  in  by 

21 


'I 


I! 


t        I 


THE    KLONDIKIC    STAMPEDE 

miners.     The  list  includes  several  artic-lcs  of  which  it  is 
only  necessary  to  have  one  in  each  party  : 

SUIM'IJKS    I'OR    ONK    MAN    1\)R    ()\K    VICAR 


8  sacks  Flour  (50  llis.  each). 
150  ll)s.  J5act)n. 
150  lbs.  Split  I'case. 
100  ll)s.  ISeans. 

25  ll)s.  Mvaiioratcd  Apples. 

25  lbs.  Kvaporatt'd  I'cachcs. 

25  ll>s.  Apricots. 

25  il>s.  liuttcr. 
KM)  Ills.  (Iraniilated  .Sugar. 

I  J  do/,.  Condensed  Milk. 

15  lbs.  C'olTee. 

10  lbs.    Tea. 

1  11).  i'e])pcr. 
10  lbs.  Salt. 

S  lbs.  ISaking  Powder. 
40  lbs.  Rolled  Oats. 

2  do/,.  Yeast  Cakes. 

4  do/.  4-ij/.  Beef  l^xtract. 

5  bars  Cast  I.'   Soap. 

6  bars  Tai  S'l.ip. 
I  tin  Mi.lc'.es. 

I  ga!.  Vii.egar. 

I  bo.\  Candles. 
25  lbs.  I'lvaporated  I'litatocs. 
25  lbs.  Rice. 
25  ( 'anvas  Sacks. 

I  Wasli-Hasin. 

1  Medicine-Chest. 

I  Rubber  Sheel. 

I  set  I'ack-Slraps. 

I  Pick. 

I  Handle. 

I  Drift-i'ick. 

I  Handle. 

I  Shovel. 

1  tlold-Pan. 

I  A.\e. 

I  V\'hip-Sa\v. 


1  I  land-Saw. 
I  Jack- Plane. 
I  Ifrace. 

4  Hits,  assorted,   ,•',.  to  i  in. 
1  S-in.  Mill  Kile. 

I  f)-in.  Mill  Pile. 

I  Hroad  Hatchet. 

I  2-(|t.  (lalvani/ed  Cullle-Pot. 

I  I'ly-l'an. 

I  I'ackage  Rivets. 

I  Draw- Knife.  |Ciraiiilc. 

3  Covered  Pails,  4,  6,  and  8  (|t., 

I  Pie- 1 'late. 

I  Knife  and  I'Ork. 

I  liranite  (.'up. 

I  each  'Pea  and  Table  Spoon. 

I  14-in.  Ciranite  Spoon, 
li    I  'i'ai)e-.Measure. 

I  ijin.  Chisel. 
10  lbs.  Oakum. 
10  lbs.  Pitch. 

5  lbs.  2{)d.  Nails. 
5  lbs.  lod.  Nails. 

0  lbs.  f)d.  Nails. 
200  feet  5-in.  Rope. 

1  Sint;le  iilock. 
1  Solder  Outlit. 

I  i4-i|t.  Galvanized  Pail. 

1  ( Iranite  Saucepan. 

3  Ills.  Candlewick. 

1  Compass. 

t  Miner's  Candlestick. 

()  'I'owels. 

I  Axe-Handle. 

I  .AxeStone. 

1  I'lmery-.Slone. 

1  Sheet-Iron  Stove. 

I  Tent. 


whicli  il  is 


III  I  III. 


•olRfl'.n. 


fCiianitu. 
(>,  and  8  111., 


)lf  S|i()iiii. 

OOll. 


\'a 


kk. 


'i 


CLOTHING,   SLKUS,   AND    Do  (IS 

I  benight  a  small  two-and-a-half-point  white  blanket  at 
the  Hudson's  Bay  Company's  store  here,  for  eiitlinj;'  up 
into  scpiares  to  fold  over  liie  feet  inside  the  moccasins 
or  else  made  into  "Siwash"  sttcks.  Foot-gear  must  be 
loose  and  plentiful.  A  miner  lately  returned  from  three 
years  on  the  Yukon  told  me  he  kept  one  large  sack  for 
ntjthing  but  moccasins  and  socks. 

On  the  advice  of  Inspector  Harper  of  the  Northwest- 
ern Mounted  Police,  who  is  taking  twenty  men  to  Daw- 
son, I  added  two  suits  of  fine  Balbriggan  underwear,  to  be 
worn  underneath  the  woollens,  and  a  shirt  of  buckskin. 
He  also  adyised  the  use  of  loose  Lisle-thread  gloves  in- 
side the  mittens,  which  enables  the  hand  to  be  comfort- 
ably withdrawn  from  the  mitten  in  very  cold  weather. 
For  rough  work,  as  handling  a  raft  or  using  tools,  a 
stouter  glove  of  buckskin,  very  loose,  would  wear  better. 
As  regards  the  loose  glove  inside  the  mitten,  this  agrees 
with  Caspar  Whitney's  experience  in  the  extreme  north 
of  Canada,  in  the  Barren  Grounds  east  of  the  mouth  of 
the  Mackenzie  River,  in  winter.  Most  people  buy  the 
complete  lumberman's  Mackinaw  suit,  of  coat  and  trou- 
sers, to  which  may  be  added  a  heavy  Mackinaw  shirt, 
with  high  collar.  The  gayer  patterns  seen  in  ihe  East- 
ern lumber-camps  are  seldom  sold  here,  but  even  the 
plainest  Mackinaw  is  positively  immodest. 

Many  are  taking  in  sleds  and  dogs.  Some  splendid 
St.  Bernards  are  going  up.  Dogs  are  expensive.  None 
suitable  can  be  had  here  at  any  price,  while  those  for 
the  use  of  the  mounted  police,  brought  from  eastward, 
cost  nearly  as  much  expressage  as  a  horse  would  cost 
to  buy.  The  sleds  (said  to  have  originated  in  the  Cas- 
siar  Mountains,  and  thence  carried  into  the  Yukon), 
to  one  who  is  accustomed  to  the  Indian  toboggan, 
whether  the  flat  upturned  board  or  the  New  Brunswick 

23 


Il   j 


i 


i 


m        I 
il       'I 


THE    KLONDIKE    S.TAMPEDE 

kind  with  cedar  sides  and  beech  shoes,  seem  heavy, 
but  are  built  by  those  who  understand  the  needs  of  the 
country.  They  are  7  feet  long,  about  16  inches  wide, 
with  a  height  of  6  inches.  The  bow  is  slightly  upturned, 
and  the  top,  of  four  longitudinal  pine  slats,  rests  upon 
four  cross  -  frames  of  ash,  with  ash  runners  shod  with 
two-inch  steel  shoes. 

The  steamer  Bristol,  a  large  steel  collier,  was  chartered 
on  a  few  days'  notice,  and  advertised  to  sail  several  days 
before  our  boat.  She  was  hauled  into  the  outer  wharf, 
and  the  carpenters  went  aboard  with  scantling  and  con- 
verted her  entire  hold  into  stalls  two  feet  in  width  for 
horses ;  and  there  were  stalls  on  deck,  and  hay  on  top  of 
them.  Rough  bunks  were  put  in,  filling  every  available 
spot  on  the  ship.  It  was  a  scene  on  the  dock  such  as 
Victoria  had  never  seen  before.  Scores  of  men  were  at 
work  building  scows,  with  which  to  lighter  the  freight 
ashore  at  Skagway  (pronounced  Skagway,  not  Skadg- 
way),  loading  the  bags  containing  the  miners'  supplies, 
and  hoisting  one  by  one  the  five  or  six  hundred  horses 
aboard.  It  characterizes  the  haste  with  which  the  crush 
has  had  to  be  met  that,  after  leaving,  the  ship  returned 
to  port  to  adjust  her  top  load,  after  a  delay  of  four  days 
beyond  the  advertised  time  of  sailing,  during  which  time 
the  poor  animals  were  crowded  in  close  rows,  with  no 
chance  to  lie  down,  and,  below,  not  even  chance  to 
'breathe.  The  men  were  hardly  better  off  than  .'^ 
horses,  two  of  which  are  of  my  outfit,  in  charge  of  the 
boy  Burghardt.  I  let  two  horses  go  on  the  Bristol,  as 
Burghardt  and  McCarron  had  not  at  that  time  bought 
their  own  horses,  which  could  now  go  aboard  the  Isl- 
ander in  the  space  reserved  for  mine.  On  account  of 
these  delays  —  which  culminated  in  a  meeting  of  in- 
dignant   passengers    on   the   dock  —  we   who    have   en- 

J4 


''i 


LI 


E 


^ 


11  hcav  y, 
ds  of  the 
hes  wide, 
ipturned, 
ests  upon 
hod  with 

chartered 
^eral  days 
;er  wharf, 
and  con- 
width  for 
on  top  of 
available 
k  such  as 
n  were  at 
le  freight 
3t   Skadg- 
>'  supplies, 
red  horses 
the  crush 
)  returned 
four  days 
:hich  time 
s,  with  no 
:hance   to 
than    .'-> 
rge  of  the 
Bristol,  as 
le  bought 
d  the  Isl- 
ccount  of 
ng   of  in- 
have   en- 


i  - 


Mf 


I! 


OFF    FOR    KLONDIKE 

oaged  to  go  on  the  good  steamer  Islander,  Captain  John 
Irving,  will  get  there  as  soon  as,  or  sooner  than,  they. 

As  I  conclude  the  account  of  the  preliminary  work,  we 
are  all  aboard  the  Islander.  She  has  left  her  wharf  at 
Victoria,  to  the  sound  of  cheer  after  cheer  from  dense 
crowds,  which  have  taken  possession  of  every  vantage- 
ground.  The  stalwart  forms  of  the  mounted  police, 
truly  a  tine-looking  body  of  men,  take  the  crowd,  and  cheer 
after  cheer  goes  up  for  them.  There  are  no  more  lusty 
shouts  than  those  given  oy  thirty-six  small  boys  perched 
in  a  row  on  the  ridge-pole  of  the  wharf  overlooking  the 
Avater.  "  Three  cheers  for  the  mounted  police  !"  and 
"Three  cheers  for  Klondike!" 

There  are  sad  faces  aboard,  and  a  tear  moistens  the 
eye  of  more  than  one  hardened  miner  who  is  leaving 
wife  and  family  behind.  But  we  are  glad  because  of 
the  cheering  crowd,  for,  as  Jim  remarks,  it  would  have 
seemed  pretty  blue  if  there  had  been  nobody  here. 


SlKAMSIlll'    /.S7./.^/.)/A■,  August   Ifj. 

As  the  echoes  of  the  cheers  that  greet  our  departure 
(lie  away  and  the  city  fades  from  view  in  the  growing 
darkness,  we  go,  each  of  us,  about  his  respective  affairs. 
Some,  worn  out  by  the  work  and  excitement  of  getting 
off,  turn  in  early  to  bed  ;  others  take  a  loolv  at  the  horses, 
which  are  making  a  regular  hubbub  on  the  lower  deck. 
We  find  them  wedged  side  by  side  in  a  long  row  along 
each  side  of  the  ship,  with  heads  towards  the  engines,  and 
no  chance  to  lie  down.  Frightened  by  the  pounding  of 
llic  engines  and  the  blasts  of  the  whistle,  they  are  throw- 
ing themselves  back  on  their  halters  and  biting  and  kick- 
ing. Jim  ^IcCarron,  ex-cavalryman,  U.  S.  A.,  is  now  in 
his  clement,  and  I  think  he  wants  to  show  his  friends,  the 
mounted  police,  that  he,  too,  knows  a  bit  about  horses. 

^7 


THE    KLONDIKE    STA^IPEDE 


Several  t)f  our  halters  are  broken,  and  it  looks  as  if  we 
would  have  to  take  alternate  watches,  but  Jim  patches 
up  some  rope  halters.  Next  day  the  animals  had  quieted 
own,  but  nearly  every  horse  has  a  mark  from  the  teeth 
)i  his  neighbor.  Poles  should  have  been  put  across,  sepa- 
rating them. 

One  man  has  eight  or  ten  enormous  steers  aboard, 
which,  with  characteristic  bovine  philosophy,  lie  down  in 
the  road  of  every  one,  and  will  budge  neither  for  threat 
nor  kick.  They  are  being  taken  in  for  packing  and  haul- 
ing. We  sincerely  trust  we  shall  never  have  to  try  to 
eat  them  when  they  reach  Klondike.  It  is  a  good-natured, 
sober  crowd  aboard.  Sevvjral  have  remarked  how  un- 
demonstrative it  is.  One-hi.lf  are  Americans.  They  are 
of  every  degree  and  of  all  F.orts  but  dudes.  There  is  a 
house-builder  from  Brooklyn,  a  contractor  from  Boston, 
tlie  business  manager  of  a  New  York  paper,  and  boys 
tliat  seem  not  over  nineteen.*  They  have  all  formed 
parties  or  partnerships,  some  to  share  every  vicissitude 
of  fortune,  others  only  to  last  until  the  gold-diggings 
are  reached.  Only  a  few  are  dressed  in  the  loose,  rough 
clothes  of  the  miner.  Several  that  I  know  who  are  going 
in  have  kept  on  their  city  suits,  and  it  has  been  amusing 
to  see  men  unaccustomed  to  rough  garments  emerge,  one 
by  one,  from  their  state-rooms  with  their  miners'  rigs  of 
heavy  boots  and  corduroys.  One  most  picturescjue  fig- 
ure is  a  swarthy  man  of  spare  but  wiry  build  who  turned 
out  in  full  buckskin  suit,  at  which  some  smih.d  ;  but  after 
a  talk  with  him  it  was  impossible  not  to  admit  that,  while 

*  One  of  the  passengers  was  Captain  (now  Lieutenant-Colonel) 
A.  A.  Lee,  Royal  Artillery,  goinj^  north  for  the  Loiuloii  CInoiticIc, 
who  returned  from  the  passes  in  time  for  the  Spanish  War,  dur- 
ing which  he  accompanied  the  United  States  as  military  attache 
of  the  British  army. 

28 


* 


THE    ISLANDER'S    PASSRXfiERS 


the  buckskin  might  "draw"  somewhat  in  wet  weather, 
nevertheless  he  was  as  well  fixed  as  any  man  on  board. 
He  is  a  packer  and  hunter,  and  hails  from  the  Black  Hills, 
and  has  a  partner  seven  feet  tall,  who  is  a  lawyer. 

One  noticeable  thing  is  the  total  absence  of  oaths  or 
the  sort  of  lan- 
guage one  will 
hear  from  morn 
till  night  among 
lumbermen.  The 
conversation  is 
pitched  in  a  low 
key  ;  men  have 
serious  things  to 
talk  about  — 
those  they  have 
left  behind ;  the 
|)ass  ahead  of 
them;  their  out- 
fits, and  those 
of  their  neigh- 
bors. Some  are 
p  r  e  1 1  y  w  e  1 1 
equipped;  in- 
deed, save  for  a 
general  lack  of 
water  -  p  !•  (J  ( )  f 
sacks,  they  are 
v.ell  prepared 
for    the    rainy 

country  which,  by  the  lowering  clouds  and  increasing 
banks  of  fog,  we  seem  to  be  entering. 

Of  the  passengers  aboard  it  may  safely  be  said  that 
each  man  has  half  a  ton  of  freight  stored  away  in  the 

29 


Mor.MKIi  I'dl.ICK  IN   STAIil.K  UNU'ORM  OF  BROWN 
CAN\AS,   WITH    "  HUSKY  "    DOGS 


[! 


' 


THE    KLONDIKE    vSTAMPEDE 

hold.  Some,  representing  companies,  have  more  than 
that.  There  is  a  large  consignment  of  sleds  aboard,  and 
several  boats,  all  of  which  are  in  lengths  too  long  to  pack 
over  the  pass.  One  New  York  party  has  folding  can- 
vas canoes, 

During  the  daytime  we  lounge  about  on  the  bales 
of   hay   on   deck,  some    sleeping,  others    admiring    the 

grand  mountain  scen- 
ery through  which  we 
are  passing.  Others 
who  have  rifles  to 
test  keep  a  sharp  look- 
out for  ducks.  Going 
through    the    narrows 

Mm^i^^^^^^^^^^mgm      between  Vancouver  Isl- 
j£|^^H^^^BI^^!^f%      and  and  the  mainland 
■*^^^^^^^^    -'-'  we  came  across  numer- 

ous small  flocks  of  sea- 
duck,  which  gave  us 
long  shots,  in  which 
the  excellence  of  the  new  "  30-40  smokeles;  "  as  long-range 
guns  stood  forth  unmistakably.  "  Buckskin  Joe,"  as  we 
have  dubbed  our  mountain  man  from  the  Black  Hills,  has 
a  gun  which,  like  himself,  is  unique.  It  is  a  30-40  box- 
magazine  Winchester  placed  side  by  side  on  the  same 
stock  with  a  Winchester  repeating  shot-gun,  and  there  is 
a  telescopic  sight  between  them.  It  is,  however,  so  put 
together  that  it  can  be  taken  apart  and  each  gun  fitted 
to  a  separate  stock,  which  he  has  with  him. 

Freight  is  in  utmost  confusion  ;  three  parcels  of  my 
own  that  came  aboard  as  my  personal  baggage  went  into 
the  hold — result,  some  valuable  photographic  chemicals 
probably  crushed,  although  in  heavy  boxes.  No  one 
knows  where  to  find  his  oats  and  hay.     Everybody  is  bor- 

30 


TAi.Ki.N(;  onirrs 


I 


)E 


A    TARIFF    QUESTION 


lore  than 
oard,  and 
g  to  pack 
ding  can- 

the  bales 

iring  the 
tain  scen- 

which  we 
Others 

rifles  to 
harp  look- 
:s.  Going 
!  narrows 
couverlsl- 

mainland 
Dss  numer- 
>cks  of  sea- 
1    gave    us 

in  which 
long-range 
foe,"  as  we 
k  Hills,  has 
30-40  box- 

the  same 

nd  there  is 

ver,  so  put 

gun  fitted 

eels  of  my 

3  went  into 

chemicals 

No  one 

)ody  is  bor- 


^ 


L  \ 


rowing  from  his  neighbor.  We  have  three  bales  of  hay 
and  a  thousand  pounds  of  oats,  and,  except  for  one  bale 
of  hay,  not  a  pound  of  our  horse-feed  have  we  been  able 
to  get  at. 

The  time  passes  between  boxing-bouts  on  deck,  singing 
to  the  accompaniment  of  the  piano,  inspecting  one  an- 
other's outfits,  and  poker,  five -cent  limit.  The  second 
night  out,  when  just  out  of  Seymour  Channel,  the  engine 
suddenly  stopped.  All  hands  rushed  on  deck,  and  we 
saw  lights  alongside  that  were  reported  to  be  those  of  a 
steamer  on  the  rocks.  It  proved  to  be  the  Danube,  which 
was  returning  from  Skagway.  She  was  all  right,  but 
sent  some  word  aboard  to  our  captain  about  the  cus- 
toms, and  a  report  was  circulated  that  there  was  to  be 
trouble  ahead  for  us 
"  Canadians."  It  was 
well  understood  by  us 
that  our  goods,  in  con- 
sequence of  being  "  in 
bond"  through  the 
strip  of  American  ter- 
ritory this  side  the 
passes,  could  not  be 
touched  by  us  at  Skag- 
wav.  Several  of  the 
Canadian  officials  on 

board  expressed  the  hope,  which  we  all  shared,  that  the 
American  customs  officials  bad  been  given  power  to  use 
discretion  in  view  of  the  exceptional  circumstances  of 
this  stampede,  or,  if  not  yet  given  such  power,  that  they 
would  use  it  anyhow.  If  the  United  vStates  officers  de- 
cide that  "bulk  must  remain  unbroken" — the  technical 
term  used  when  goods  are  in  bond  and  under  seal — it 
will  be  the  poor  miner  who  will  suffer.     He  will  suffer 

,31 


I'KOSI'K(  riVK    MII.I.IONAIRKS 


|i 


j   i 


i    1 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

by  not  having  access  to  his  food  and  cooking  and  camp- 
ing utensils  until  after  he  gets  over  the  pass ;  and  if  he 
does  break  bulk,  and  thus  destroys  the  seal  which  is 
evidence  of  Canadian  purchase,  he  will  be  liable  to  the 
Canadians  for  the  duties  after  he  crosses  the  pass.  We 
were,  therefore,  in  no  small  suspense  until  the  afternoon 
of  the  ryth,  when  we  readhed  Mary  Island,  in  Alaska. 
Here  the  American  customs  oificial,  Mr.  P.  A.  Smith, 
came  aboard,  and  after  supper  he  sent  for  all  the  pas- 
sengers to  meet  him  in  the  dining -saloon,  where  he 
addressed  us  in  the  following  words  : 

"Gentlemen,  I  have  just  a  few  words  to  say  to  you, 
and  I  shall  speak  as  loud  as  I  can,  but,  if  I  shall  not  be 
able  to  make  myself  heard,  I  hope  those  who  do  hear  will 
tell  the  others.  I  suppose  that  most  of  you  are  Canadians, 
and  I  wish  to  make  a  few  suggestions  to  you,  so  that  you 
may  be  put  to  as  little  trouble  as  possible  in  transit.  My 
advice  to  you  is  to  get  organized,  and  appoint  committees 
to  look  after  the  landing  at  Skagway.  I  was  on  the 
Danube,  and  I  gave  its  passengers  the  same  advice,  and 
they  appointed  a  committee  of  ten,  who  saw  to  the  separa- 
tion of  the  freight  and  that  each  man  got  his  own  goods. 
If  you  do  not  do  this  there  will  be  great  confusion,  for  I 
suppose  you  are  aware  that  the  landing  is  done  in  scows. 
These  committees  can  attend  to  everything,  and  you  will 
have  no  trouble  whatever.  The  passengers  on  the  Danube 
had  no  trouble  whatever.  I  would  say  another  thing  to 
you.  There  are  persons  in  Skagway  who  gather  in 
things  ;  and  your  committee  can  appoint  watchers  to 
keep  an  eye  on  your  things  and  to  guard  the  supplies. 

"  Now,  as  to  food  at  Skagway.  I  suppose  you  know 
that,  according  to  the  strict  letter  of  the  law,  goods 
bonded  through  cannot  be  broken  without  payment  of 
duty  ;  but  such  things  as  tents  and  blankets  a  man  must 

32 


r 


E 


WHISKEY    PROHIBITED    IN    ALASKA 


nd  catnp- 
and  if  he 
which  is 
lie  t()  the 
)ass.  We 
afternoon 
n  Ahiska. 
A.  Smith, 
1  the  pas- 
where  he 

ay  to  you, 
all  not  be 
1  hear  will 
Canadians, 
;>  that  you 
ansit.  My 
ommittees 
fas  on  the 
idvice,  and 
the  separa- 
)wn  goods, 
.ision,  for  I 
e  in  scows, 
nd  you  will 
;he  Danube 
zx  thing  to 
gather  in 
atchers  to 
mpplies. 
you  know 
law,  goods 
Dayment  of 
man  must 


t 


have.  Those  you  will  be  allowed  to  use  ;  but  I  would 
advise  you  to  stop  off  at  Juneau  and  to  buy  there  enough 
food  to  last  you  over  the  pass.  It  will  not  cost  you  any 
more  than  at  Seattle,  and  you  can  get  just  enough  and 
take  it  aboard  ;  there  will  be  no  charge  for  freight. 

"Now,  another  thing.    The  government  of  the  United 
States  is  very  strict  about  bringing  whiskey  into  Alaska. 


SKAGWAV,  TWO   WEEKS   BEFORE  OUR   ARRIVAL 

Any  one  found  with  liquor  is  liable  to  a  severe  fine  and 
imprisonment,  and  if  I  should  find  any  of  you  with  liquor 
I  sJKHild  have  to  arrest  him  and  take  him  to  Juneau, 
where  he  would  be  punished — " 

Just  here  the  seven  -  foot  partner  of  "  Buckskin  Joe  " 
jumped  to  his  feet.  "Mr.  Officer,"  said  he,  "I  have  a 
flask  of  whiskey  with  me,  and  me  and  my  partner — well, 
we  have  a  quart  fiask  between  us.  We  don't  drink  ;  we 
are  taking  it  strictly  for  medicinal  purposes.  What  shall 
we  do  ?" 

"  In  such  case,"  replied  Mr.  Smith,  "  I  may  say  that  it 
is  not  the  intention  of  the  law  to  examine  a  man's  fiask. 
^  33 


i, 


THE    KLONDIKE    vSTAMPEDE 


The  purpose  of  the  law  is  to  prevent  the  sale  of  whiskey 
to  the  Indians,  and  it  is  very  strictly  enforced;  but,  of 
course,  we  do  not  look  into  people's  flasks.  I  only  caution 
you.  There  are  unprincipled  men  who  would  traffic  in 
liquor,  and  such  as  these  I  desire  to  warn  in  time." 

This  short  speech,  delivered  with  quiet  dignity,  created 
the  most  favorable  impression,  and  from  all  on  board  I 
heard  nothing  but  words  of  praise  of  the  attitude  as- 
sumed by  our  government.  Jim  McCarron  could  hardly 
restrain  his  feelings.  "That  man's  a  credit  to  the  coun- 
try," he  whispered.  The  customs  officer  was  surrounded 
by  an  eager  crowd  asking  questions. 

"  What  is  the  penalty  for  theft  at  Skagway  ?" 

"They  [the  miners]  give  him  twenty-four  hours  to 
leave  ;  and  if  he  doesn't  leave,  he  is  shot." 

Inquiry  was  made  about  the  attitude  of  the  Canadian 
officials.  The  Canadian  customs  party,  in  charge  of  Mr. 
John  Godson,  were  passengers  on  the  Danube.  Of  course, 
Mr.  Smith  had  no  authority  to  speak,  but  he  gave  the 
impression  that  the  two  governments  had  reached  an 
understanding,  and  that  no  hardship  would  be  inflicted 
on  miners  by  a  strict  enforcement  of  the  law. 

"We  came  to  this  agreement,"  said  he,  "  because  many 
of  the  miners  who  are  coming  up  here,  after  they  have 
bought  their  supplies  and  their  horses,  will  have  nothing 
left  over  to  pay  duty,  and  it  would  be  a  needless  hardship. 
Our  desire  is  to  get  them  through  as  easily  as  possible." 

Of  our  i6o  passengers  and  109  horses,  every  one  will 
start  over  White  Pass,  although  it  seems  incredible  that 
an  easier  pass,  which  this  is  reported  to  be,  exists  so 
near  the  Dyea  trail. 

The  new  trail  seems  to  have  been  cut  through  by  a 
company  formed  for  the  construction  of  a  railway, 
known    as   the    British    Yukon    Mining,   Trading,   afid 

34 


ii 


E 


ARRIVAL    AT    JUNEAU 


f  whiskey 
1 ;  but,  of 
y  caution 
traffic  in 
ne." 

y,  created 
n  board  I 
titude  as- 
.ild  hardly 
the  coun- 
urrounded 


r  hours  to 

;  Canadian 
,rge  of  Mr. 
Of  course, 
e  gave  the 
reached  an 
be  inflicted 

:ause  many 
r  they  have 
ive  nothing 
ss  hardship. 
;  possible." 
:ry  one  wih 
redible  that 
e,  exists  so 

trough  by  a 

a    railway, 

rading,   afid 


Transportation  Company.  The  American  branch  is 
known  as  the  Alaskan  and  Northwestern  Territories 
Trading  Company.  Mr.  G.  H.  Escolme,  of  Victoria,  man- 
aging director  of  the  American  company,  who  is  aboard 
the  Islander^  says  of  White  Pass  trail  : 

"We  have  cut  a  trail  over  the  summit  from  Skag- 
way,  at  a  cost  of  $10,000.  We  own  the  town  site  of 
Skagway,  and  are  building  wharves,  etc.  We  cut  the 
trail  mainly  to  prospect  for  the  railroad.  I  went  over 
the  trail  on  the  15th  of  July  and  came  back  on  the  i6th. 
Then  the  trail  did  not  go  beyond  the  summit,  but  we 
have  had  men  working  there  right  along  since.  It  is  a 
private  trail ;  but  we  are  about  the  only  people  who  are 
not  taxing  the  miners,  and  we  don't  want  to  do  so  at  any 
time.  We  expect  to  get  a  few  miles  of  the  railroad  built 
this  fall ;  but  even  when  the  railroad  is  done  there  will 
be  many  who  will  go  over  the  trail.  It  may  be  that  we 
shall  charge  a  small  toll.  One  of  my  present  purposes 
is  to  try  to  reduce  the  price  of  packing,  which  is  now 
20  cents  a  pound,  and  we  mean  to  see  that  the  miners 
get  supplies  at  a  reasonable  cost." 

We  are  now  approaching  Juneau.  We  have  had,  with 
the  exception  of  a  few  fog-banks,  beautiful  clep'  weather, 
and  the  trip  has  been  like  a  summer  excursion.  T  at  new, 
well  in  Alaska,  in  the  shadow  of  snow-capped  mountains 
and  glaciers,  the  rain  is  coming  down  in  a  steady  drizzle. 
We  have  been  trying  hard  to  overtakt  th^  Bristol, 
which  started  only  a  day  ahead.  At  Juneau,  Jim  goes 
ashore  to  buy  hardtack,  tea,  bacon,  and  sugar  to  last 
three  days  (by  which  time  we  expect  to  be  over  the 
summit,  when  we  can  open  our  bonded  goods);  I,  to 
purchase  a  new  hat  and  look  around. 

Juneau,  sustained  by  the  great  Treadwell  quartz  mine 
on  Douglas  Island  nearby,  has  for  many  years  been  the 


J3 


! 

I; 


f 


!M|| 


.1! 


! 


I;t 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

outfitting-point  for  the  upper  Yukon,  and  many  of  the 
shopkeepers  are  old  miners  who  understand  thoroughly 
the  wants  of  those  going  to  the  g(iKl-Helds.  The  rush 
has  taken  Juneau  by  surprise,  but  by  spring  they  expect 
to  have  full  lines  of  clothing  and  supplies  to  meet  any 
demand. 

It  was  the  opinion  of  all  that  prices  at  Juneau  were 
reasonable.  Oil-skin  coats  that  sell  for  $3.50  in  Victoria 
sold  for  J^3  in  Juneau  ;  but  our  Canadian  woollens  were 
better  value  than  the  American.  We  fo'  the  stores 
th'^roughly  drained  of  snow-shoes,  a  pair  ond-hand 

worn-out  Montreal  shoes  selling  for  $3.50.  Ilair-seal 
boots,  mitts,  and  low  moccasins,  as  well  as  fur  caps  made 
of  marmot  (sold  as  "pup  wolf"),  of  black-fox  feet,  and 
of  hair-seal,  are  sold  by  squaws,  who  await  the  arrival  of 
the  steamer,  squatting  in  a  long  row  against  a  building 
at  the  wharf,  and  offer  their  wares  to  the  passengers. 
The  boots  have  tops  that  reach  to  the  knee,  and  sell  for 
any  price  down  to  $2.30.  The  hair-seal  is  not  to  be  con- 
fused with  the  fur-seal.  The  skin  is  covered  with  short, 
glistening,  motMed,  yellowish  hair,  is  full  of  oil,  and  is 
said  to  be  water-proof. 

It  was  raining  a  steady  drizzle  the  hour  or  two  we  were 
in  Juneau.  We  seemed  to  have  entered  a  region  of  per- 
petual fogs  and  rain,  and  our  hearts  sank  as  we  thought 
of  Skagway.  My  greatest  apprehension  was  about  pho- 
tography, on  account  of  the  rain  and  absence  of  sufficient 
light  for  "  instantaneous  "  w^ork. 

As  we  drew  near  the  entrance  of  Lynn  Canal,  which 
branches  off  to  the  right  from  Glacier  Bay,  we  ran  into  a 
bank  of  fog,  and  the  Islander  came  to  and  dropped  anchor. 

At  10.30  o'clock  a  meeting  of  the  passengers  was  called 
to  act  upon  the  suggestions  of  the  customs  officer  and  to 
devise  plans  for  the  landing  of  our  stuff.     The  steam- 

36 


LANDING    FREIGHT    AT    SKAGWAY 

ship  only  undertakes  to  deliver  passengers  and  freight  at 
Skagway  Bay.  The  work  of  landing  the  freight  must  be 
(lone  by  the  passengers;  the  steamship  people  refuse  to 
assume  any  responsibility.  Accordingly,  after  a  lengthy 
discussion,  during  which  all  the  kickers  had  something 
to  say,  it  was  resolved  to  appcnnt  a  committee  of  three 
to  devise  plans  for  the  unloading  of  the  goods,  and  with 
])ower  to  add  as  many  as  necessary  tt)  then-  number. 
The  following  is  a  copy  of  the  minutes  of  the  committee  : 

"Minutes  of  the  first  meeting  of  committee,  composed  of 
Messrs.  Arthur  T.  Genest,  William  Macintosh,  and  Gcor<^e  W. 
Young,  appointed  by  the  passengii s  to  form  and  execute  plans 
for  the  landing  and  protection  of  the  freight  held  on  board  the 
steamship /.vAfW^tv-  on  August  19,  1S97,  at  11  p.m. 

"  The  meeting  was  called  to  order  by  Mr.  Genest,  who  was 
chosen  chairman.  Mr.  L.  B.  Garside  was  made  the  secretary  of 
the  committee.  After  discussion,  the  following  plan  was  de- 
cided upon : 

"  Upon  arriving  at  Skagway  a  representative  of  the  committee 
will  go  ashore  and  select  a  suitable  place  on  the  beach  for  land- 
ing and  distributing  the  goods.  This  will  be  enclosed  by  ropes, 
and  the  enclosure  will  be  policed  by  a  committee  of  lifteen, 
armed  with  rifles,  and  doing  police  duty  in  shifts  of  eight  hours 
each.  No  goods  can  be  removed  from  the  enclosure  except  upon 
a  written  order  of  the  committee.  On  board  ship,  Messrs.  S.  A. 
Hall  and  J.  Robinson  will  check  the  goods  as  unloaded  and  sent 
ashore,  and  on  shore  the  goods  received  will  be  checked  by 
Messrs.  D.  Orsonnens  and  N.  B.  Forrest.  Fifty  volunteers  will 
receive  goods  as  landed,  and,  in  conjunction  with  the  subcommit- 
tee, distribute  and  arrange  the  same.  Messrs.  William  Fuller  and 
Duncan  MacDonald  will  police  the  boat  until  freight  and  bag- 
gage are  discharged." 

Further  arrangements  consisted  in  the  appointment 
of  Mr.  J.  W.  Beall  as  Chief  of  Police  in  the  enclosure, 

37 


'  ( 


•iH 


■ 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 


with  instructions  to  appoint  his  assistants,  and  the  pre- 
vious plans  were  modified  to  the  extent  of  allowing  re- 
moval of  goods  upon  proper  identification  and  receipt  to 
Mr.  Beall. 

To-night  hardly  anything  is  talked  about  but  plans  of 
landing.  Every  moment,  as  we  approach  our  destina- 
tion, our  anxiety  increases  ;  while  in  Juneau  everybody 
had  interviewed  somebody,  and  everybody  who  was  not 
interviewed  volunteered  something  to  say.  No  two 
stories  agreed,  save  that  all  told  one  story  of  trouble  and 
hardship  past  comprehension.  Only  one  man  was  dis- 
covered who  said  the  trail  was  all  right.  We  came  to  the 
conclusion  that  either  there  are  no  liars  like  those  of 
Alaska,  or  that  the  people  here  are  very  ignorant. 
Every  one  throws  up  his  hands  in  disgust  and  says, 
*'  We  will  know  what  it  is  like  when  we  get  there,  and 
not  before." 


1 


the  pre- 
[wiiig  re- 
jeceipt  to 


plans  of 
destina- 
erybody 
was  not 
No  two 
uble  and 
was  dis- 

mc  to  the 
those  of 

ignorant. 

md   says, 

here,  and 


CHAPTER   III 

l.andinj;  at  Skagway  —  Excitement  and  llanlsliips  and  Confusion  —  A 
New  City — Duty  on  Horses — First  Ulimpse  of  the  Trail — Skagway 
River— At  tlie  "  Fool  of  tlie  Hill  "  —  Horses  Down 

Skacway  15ay,  Aut^iist  20. 

^HE  sini  broke  through  the  dense  banks 
of  clouds  that  rested  on  the  frowning 
hills,  the  fog  lifted  a  bit,  the  anchor  was 
weighed,  and  we  steamed  onward. 

There  was  much  talk  about  the  Bris- 
tol, some  hoping  we  had  passed  her  ; 
but  soon  those  who  were  on  the  look- 
out at  the  bow  reported  a  vessel  ahead 
on  the  right  hand  in  a  shallow  bight,  and  as  we  drew 
near  we  saw  other  vessels,  and  beyond  them  a  faint 
streak  of  white  sparkling  in  the  fitful  sinilight  across  a 
little  valley,  with  the  steep  hills  rising  on  each  side,  their 
tops  lost  in  the  canopy  of  clouds.  Beyond  the  line  of 
trees,  and  far 


Ki 


'ay 


ll;il  valley,  winding  among  the  hills.  It  is  Skagway  Hay  ; 
and  it  is  White  Pass  that  lies  far  away  in  the  blue  distance. 
As  we  steamed  slowly  into  the  little  bay  the  white  streak 
resolved  itself  into  tents,  a  city  of  tents,  stretched  across 
a  plain  hardly  a  quarter  of  a  mile  wide,  level,  and  pre- 
senting a  straight  front  to  the  bay. 

The  Hristol  had  arrived  three  or  four  hours  ahead  of 
lis.  Her  rails  were  black  with  men,  who  reported  all 
well,  and  after  a  while  the  voice  of  Burghardt  shouted 

39 


1!  ;f 


'  i 


1 

•I 


ITI 


'I 


if 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

over  the  short  interval  of  water  the  good  news  that  our 
horses  were  all  right. 

The  horses  and  hay  were  benig  unloaded  into  large 
scows,  which  were  being  towed  in  by  row-boats  to  the 
beach,  which  was  also  crowded  with  moving  figures. 
The  beach  is  low,  and  runs  out  several  hundred  yards, 
and  then  drops  off  into  deep  water.  At  low  tide  the 
whole  beach  is  uncovered,  so  the  steamers  lie  outside  and 


:=n 


IMUMITIVE    LANDINT,    FACIIJTIF.S 
Steamship  to  Scow ;   Scow  to  Wagon ;   Wagon  to  Sliore 

wait  for  high  tide  to  unload  their  freight.  Our  vessel 
was  soon  surrounded  by  a  fleet  of  row-boats  and  large 
Siwash  canoes,  trying  to  pick  up  passengers  for  shore  at 
25  cents  each.  In  crowds  on  the  deck  we  stood  gazir.g  in 
wonder  at  the  scene  beff)re  us.  Few  of  us  had  the  in- 
clination to  look  at  the  truly  grand  scenery  with  which  we 
were  surrounded.  Snow  and  glacier  capped  mountains, 
rising  thousands  of  feet  from  green,  sjjarkling  water, 
burying  their  lofty  heads  in  soft,  cottony  clouds,  are  for 
other  eyes  than  those  of  miners  excited  by  the  prepara- 

40 


:hat  our 

tn  large 
s  to  the 
tigures. 
d  yards, 
tide  the 
side  and 


'iir  vessel 
md  large 

shore  at 
jaziiig  in 
d  the  in- 
which  we 
Duntains, 
g  water, 
s,  are  for 

prepara- 


% 
i 


I 


I 


llEWILD  BRING    SIGHTS    AT    SKAGWAY 

tion  for  the  real  eommencement  of  their  journey.  The 
ca])tain  goes  ashore  for  a  customs  officer.  I  go  ashore 
with  two  others — and  such  a  scene  as  meets  the  eye !  It 
is  simply  bewildering,  it  is  all  so  strange.  There  are  great 
crowds  of  men  rowing  in  boats  to  the  beach,  then  clam- 
bering out  in  rubber  boots  and  packing  the  stufif,  and 
setting  it  down  in  little  piles  out  of  reach  of  the  tide. 
Here  are  little  groups  of  men  resting  with  their  outfits. 
Morses  are  tethered  out  singly  and  in  groups.  Tents 
there  are  of  every  size  and  kind,  and  men  cooking  over 
large  sheet -iron  stoves  set  up  outside.  Behind  these 
are  more  tents  and  men,  and  piles  of  merchandise  and 
hay,  bacon  smoking,  men  loading  bags  and  bales  of  hay 
upon  horses  and  starting  off,  leading  from  one  to  three 
animals  along  a  sort  of  lane — which  seems  much  trav- 
elled— in  the  direction  of  a  grove  of  small  cottonwoods, 
beyond  which  lies  the  trail  towards  White  Pass.  Every- 
body is  on  the  move,  excepting  those  just  arrived,  and 
each  is  intent  upon  his  own  business.  There  are  said  to 
he  twenty-five  hundred  people  along  the  road  between 
the  bay  and  the  summit,  who  have  come  on  the  Mexico, 
Willamette,  Queen,  etc.  There  are  not  over  one  hundred 
tents  at  Skagway,  and  there  may  be  five  hundred  persons 
actually  in  the  town. 

Rough  frame  buildings  are  going  upas  quickly  as  men 
can  handle  scantling,  and  as  fast  as  they  are  finished  they 
are  turned  into  stores  or  warehouses.  There  are  three  or 
four  hotels  or  restaurants  ;  and  a  United  States  fiag  fly- 
ing over  a  tent  is  evidence  of  the  presence  of  a  United 
States  Court  Commissioner — the  only  representative  of 
government  here,  save  that  organized  by  the  miners 
themselves.  A  large  painted  cloth  sign  indicates  the 
location  of  the  correspondents  of  enterprising  newspa- 
pers, and  the  half-dozen  newspaper  men  here  gave  us 

41 


1ti- 


'$      i' 


i        '11 '  !' 

I 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

a  hearty  welcome.  Men  and  horses  are  travelling  to  and 
fro  in  a  never-ending  stream.  There  are  a  number  of 
women  ;  such  as  I  met  being  wives  who  have  accompa- 
nied their  husbands  thus  far,  and  most  of  whom  will 
return. 

It  will  be  several  days  before  the  pack-trains  can  get 
well  under  way.     If  we  accompany  the  mounted  police, 


MINERS    GUARDING  OUTFITS  JUST   LANDED 

as  we  have  been  courteously  invited  to  do,  there  will  be 
time  tf)  go  over  to  Dyea  and  to  see  the  Chilkoot  Pass. 
How  many  of  the  140  odd  who  are  starting  from  this 
ship  will  see  the  summit  of  White  Pass  ?  Or,  if  fortune 
favors  them  and  they  reach  the  lakes,  how  many  will 
reach  their  journey's  end  this  year,  or  ever  ?  The 
thought  is  in  every  one's  mind.  Each  new-comer  from 
up  the  trail  is  received  with  the  an.vious  query,  "  What 
are  the  chances  of  getting  over?"  The  only  answer 
that  can  be  given  is,  "It  depends  upon  what  you 
are." 

42 


E 

ig  to  and 
an  her  of 
iccompa- 
lom  will 

car.  get 
id  police, 


re  will  be 
coot  Pass, 
from  this 
if  fortune 
nany  will 
M-  ?  The 
mer  from 
y,  "  What 
y  answer 
k^hat    you 


SOME    ACCOUNTS    OF    CHILKOOT    PASS 

Morning  of  A  iigusl  2 1 . 
At  dawn  a  call  of  "  Get  up  ;  the  horses  are  being  taken 
ashore  !"  resounds  over  the  ship.  A  large  scow  is  ranged 
alongside  the  vessel,  and  the  horses  are  walked  aboard 
on  a  plank  and  ferried  to  the  beach,  where  they  are 
(lumped  ashore  into  shallow  water.  AVe  notice  that  men 
from  the  Bristol  are  taking  horses  part  way,  then  dump- 
ing them  overboard  and  swimming  them  ashore.  Jim 
and  the  boy  yesterday  set  their  tent  up  in  the  middle 
of  "town,"  and  after  we  had  waded  our  horses  ashore, 
each  man  looking  after  his  own,  we  got  our  personal  ef- 
fects ashore  in  small  boats. 

It  is  impossible  to  find  any  two  men  to  agree  upon  any 
detail  about  the  pass.  It  is  tolerably  certain  that  the 
road  for  four  miles  or  so  to  the  ''Foot  of  the  Hill"  is  fairly 
good  ;  after  that  it  is  only  described  in  words  not  fit  to 
be  heard.  It  is  probable  that  there  are  several  very  bad, 
steep  places  this  side  of  the  summit.  vSome  who  are 
I  working  there  say  the  way  is  to  take  a  light  load  on  the 
"  pack-train  all  the  way  in  without  a  stop.  Next  moment 
another,  equally  to  be  credited,  advises  to  move  the  whole 
outfit  gradually,  short  stages  at  a  time.  One  says  but 
one  horse  can  be  led  at  a  time  over  these  places  ;  anoth- 
er says  three  can  be  handled  by  one  man  ;  while  still  an- 
other lets  the  horses  pick  their  own  way.  One  packer  told 
of  a  remarkable  escape  at  a  cliff — and  it  was  corroborated 
l)y  others — of  his  horse  falling  forty  feet  ;  when  they  got 
down  to  him  he  was  eating  grass,  and  the  lunch-bo.\  on 
his  back  was  undamaged.  The  day  before,  two  men  and 
three  horses  fell  over  the  same  place.  My  informant 
is  seven  miles  from  the  top.  He  says, "  I  mean  to  go 
over  if  it  takes  all  winter."  He  added:  "We  are  going 
right  on  about  our  business.  We  do  not  come  down  here 
to  town  nights  and  get  up  late  and  tired.     We  get  out 

43 


•■■    'I  ll 

%  4i 


IT 


l\ 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

early,  at  four  o'clock.  We  do  not  come  down  to  these 
miners'  meetings." 

A  party  of  two  arrived  on  the  Al-Kiirom  Seattle  on  the 
nth  without  horses,  hired  five  men  at  $7  a  day  with  feed 
and  blankets,  and  are  near  the  summit,  preferring  to 
pay  such  vages  rather  than  to  pay  a  pack  -  train  from 
25  to  30  cents  per  pound.  Their  outfit  weighs  1200 
pounds  each.     One  of  them  was  a  barber. 

Discouraged  men  are  coming  down  from  the  trail,  and 
they  have  but  one  story  to  tell  —  of  terrible  hardship, 
horses  falling  right  and  left,  seventeen  in  one  place  ;  the 
road,  if  it  can  be  called  a  road,  in  terrible  condition  ;  not 
one  in  ten  will  get  over. 

I  talked  with  one  or  two  determined  fellows  who  came 
down  to  the  boat,  and  who  had  their  pack-trains  in  on 
the  trail.  From  these  I  heard  a  different  story.  In  all  I 
have  talked  with  five  or  six  good  men,  but  they  all  agree 
that  there  is  plenty  of  trouble. 

"  The  road  is  good  for  four  or  five  miles — it  is  a  regu- 
lar cinch  ;  after  that  hell  begins." 

Some  say  that  not  one  in  ten  will  get  over.  These  are 
the  alarmists  and  the  excited  ones.  A  more  conservative 
estimate  is  that  four  out  of  ten  wii.  get  through.  One 
party  of  two  loaded  their  belongings  into  a  small  scow 
and  paddled  out  to  the  steamer,  where  they  held  a  long 
talk  with  our  men,  announcing  that  they  were  bound  for 
Dyea  and  Chilkoot  Pass.  They  asserted  that  the  pass 
here  is  blocked,  while  men  are  moving  over  Chilkoot,  even 
if  slowly.  As  they  paddled  away  we  admired  their  pluck 
and  gave  them  a  rousing  cheer.  They  did  not  look  like 
strong  men,  but  they  smoked  their  pipes  bravely.  All 
their  stuff  was  on  the  scow,  sinking  it  low  in  the  water. 
There  were  sacks  and  boxes  and  two  buggy -wheels, 
with  which  to  make  a  narrow  push-cart.     It  is  pitiful. 

44 


i 


to  these 

le  on  the 
ith  feed 
rring  to 
lin  from 
ghs  1 200 

rail,  and 
lardship, 
ace  ;  the 
ion  ;  not 

^ho  came 

ns  in  on 

In  all  I 

all  agree 

s  a  regit - 

rhese  are 
servative 
gh.     One 
nail  scow 
Id  a  long 
)ound  for 
the  pass 
oot,  even 
eir  pluck- 
look  like 
ely.     All 
le  water, 
-wheels, 
i  pitiful. 


FAILURE    CAUSED    BY    INEXPERIENCE 

Their  last  words  were,  "  Well,  boys,  we  will  meet  you  on 
the  other  side  of  the  mountains."  We  wondered  if  they 
would. 

The  news  of  the  blockade  up  the  pass  is  having  a  dis- 
couraging effect  on  the  men.  They  are  earnestly  dis- 
cussing the  situation.  The  mounted  police  and  their 
74  horses  are  all  right,  and  my  8  horses  for  the  outfit  of 
3,  they  say,  are  all  right ;  and  every  one  says  zoc  will  get 
over.  We  have  now  authentic  information  from  expe- 
rienced men  who  are  putting  their  stuff  over  the  trail. 


.V   MINKU  S    WIKE 


I  asked  them  what  was  the  cause  of  the  trouble ;  and 
from  all  whose  opinion  seemed  worth  any  consideration 
I  received  but  one  reply  : 

"  //  is  the  inexperience  of  those  ivho  are  trying  to  go  over. 
'I'liey  come  from  desks  and  counters  ;  they  have  never 
[tacked,  and  are  not  even  accustomed  to  hard  labor." 

One  party,  now  v/ithin  four  miles  of  the  top,  took  in 

45 


i| 


'M  ri 


1 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 


11 


I 


1 


II 


ten  horses.  They  lost  four  by  overloading  ;  then  they 
reduced  the  weight  to  150  pounds  per  horse.  The  roads 
are  said  to  be  shelving,  and  the  horses  slip  and  break 
their  legs,  and  have  to  be  shot.  To  -  day  two  horses 
mired,  fell,  and  smothered  before  their  clumsy  owners 
could  get  their  heads  clear.  I  have  traced  the  conflict- 
ing stories  to  this  : 

This  is  an  army.  Those  in  front  are  stubbornly  fight- 
ing their  way  ;  they  are  moving  slowly,  but  they  will  get 
over.  Behind  these  are  the  stragglers,  who  in  turn  be- 
come the  beaten  rabble  in  the  rear  of  the  fight.  Those 
up  the  pass  are  cool,  experienced  men,  and  they  are  keep- 
ing their  heads.  One  man  says  :  "  Why,  those  who  are 
making  the  most  talk  are  here  yet.  They  have  not  been 
out  of  Skagway ;  but  they  get  upon  a  stump  and  look 
around,  and  think  they  have  seen  the  whole  business." 

Men  have  come  without  horses,  and  without  money 
to  pay  the  high  price  for  packing  —  now  35  cents  per 
pound.  They  are  leaving  for  Chilkoot,  or  else  selling 
their  outfits  for  what  they  can  get.  Flour  in  the  sack 
has  just  been  selling  for  35  cents  per  hundredweight,  or 
17^  cents  per  sack  of  fifty  pounds — many  times  less  than 
cost ;  bacon,  only  5  cents  per  pound.  On  the  other 
hand,  horses,  up  to  yesterday,  $200;  to-day  from  $125 
to  $150,  poor  ones  at  that.  In  four  or  five  days,  it  is  said 
by  those  who  have  been  on  the  ground  some  time,  they 
will  be  worth  hardly  anything.  At  the  summit  they 
are  not  worth  20  cents.  A  week  ago  a  man  could  have 
cleared  from  $100  to  $150  per  horse.  There  are  more 
ways  of  making  money  than  by  going  to  Klondike. 

During  the  three-quarters  of  an  hour  I  spent  ashore  I 
saw  the  following  :      ' 

A  horse  in  a  cart  suddenly  kicked,  ran  into  a  i)ile  of 
hay,  broke  loose,  and  started  across  town,  taking  the  cor- 

46 


Kl 


HOW  THE  FREIGHT  IS  LANDED 


mm 


'.n  they 
i  roads 
break 
horses 
owners 
;onflict- 

y  figiit- 

will  get 

urn  be- 
Those 

e  keep- 
who  are 
lot  been 

nd  look 
ness." 

money 
ents  per 
i  selling 
the  sack 
eight,  or 
ess  than 
le  other 
om  $125 
it  is  said 
me,  they 
nit  they 
uld  have 
,re  more 
ke. 
ashore  I 

;i  pile  of 
the  cor- 


i 


nersof  two  or  three  tents.  After  galloping  about  among 
the  frail  habitations,  he  was  finally  caught  and  led  back. 
Another  horse,  tied  to  a  log  fifteen  feet  long  and  six 
inches  through,  began  to  jerk  and  jump,  and  went  for  a 
hundred  yards  cavorting  down  the  main  street,  dragging 
another  horse  that  was  hitched  to  the  same  log.  A  horse 
with  a  load  of  two  small  bundles  of  hay  suddenly  fell 
down,  lay  there  a  moment,  then  got  up  and  fell  again. 
This  was  on  level  ground  with  a  light  load. 

Every  man  is  armed — all  with  revolvers,  some  with  re- 
peating-rifles.  One  facetious  packer  who  came  down  to 
the  boat  said  :  "  There  are  more  inexperienced  men  to 
the  square  foot  than  in  any  place  I  have  ever  been  to, 
and  more  double-action  revolvers.  They  ought  to  have 
left  them  at  home.  It  would  be  a  charity  for  Mr.  Con- 
stantine  [of  the  mounted  police  at  Dawson]  to  take 
them  all  away,  for  they  will  be  shooting  themselves." 

Even  at  this  short  distance  it  is  impossible  to  learn 
anything  beyond  one's  eye.  There  seems  to  be  a  gen- 
eral movement  towards  Dyea,  but  a  few  are  coming  this 
way.  This  seems  only  natural  when  both  routes  are  con- 
fessedly so  hard.  One  man,  who  had  been  upon  both, 
expressed  himself  thus,  "  Whichever  way  you  go,  you 
will  wish  you  had  gone  the  other." 

In  pursuance  of  the  plan  arranged  on  board  the  /si- 
audii\  the  committee  appointed  to  superintend  the  un- 
loading of  the  goods  has  detailed  a  checker  to  act  with 
the  purser  aboard  the  vessel  as  each  piece  comes  out  of 
th<;  liold,  and  another  checker  to  mark  off  each  piece 
;is  it  is  received  on  shore.  There  is  probably  a  hundred 
tons  of  miners'  freight.  Every  man  is  expected  to  handle 
and  look  out  for  his  own  goods.  Some  bring  it  out  of 
the  hold  ;  others  load  it  upon  the  ship's  boats,  which  are 
iIkh  rowed  as  far  in  to  the  beach  as  the  shallow  water  per- 

47 


■:tl 


I'M 


1:' 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAiMPEDE 

mits.  Then  two-horse  wagons  are  driven  alongside,  and 
the  goods  transferred  and  delivered,  at  a  cost  of  a  dollar 
a  load,  a  distance  of  several  hundred  yards  up  towards 
the  town.  The  original  plan  of  roping  out  a  space  has 
been  discarded ;  instead,  the  goods  are  loaded  upon  a  large 


..JS* 


i.ANDiNc.  noons  i-rom  I!0AT  to  wagon 


n  a! 


float  that  lies  high  and  dry  well  up  on  the  beach.  Here 
others  of  the  miners  handle  the  goods  again,  and,  as  far 
as  possible,  put  each  man's  goods  in  a  separate  pile.  It 
is  a  busy  scene — boats  are  coming  and  going  from  the 
ship  ;  half  a  dozen  teams  are  kept  busy  hauling  ;  boat- 
men have  come  up  from  Juneau  and  elsewhere,  with  all 
sorts  of  rowing  and  sailing  craft,  to  reap  the  harvest, 
and  are  shouting  for  passengers  to  the  vessels  in  the 
harbor,  at  25  cents  out  or  50  cents  for  the  round  trip. 
They  are  making  from  $15  to  $20  a  day. 

We  have  learned  already  to  place  no  reliance  upon  any 
person's  word.  Every  one  seems  to  have  lost  his  head, 
and  cannot  observe  or  state  facts.  The  very  horses  and 
animals  partake  of  the  fever  and  are  restless.  All  is 
strange  and  unaccustomed  to  both  men  and  animals. 
Accidents  and  runaways  are  occurring  every  few  mo- 

48 


■i 

1 


WHAT    ONE    SEES    AT    SKAdWAV 


incnts.  vSiuldenly  there  is  a  commotion  ;  a  horse  starts 
off  with  a  half-])ackc;(l  load  or  a  cart  and  cuts  a  swath 
over  tents  up  throut^h  the  town,  scattering  the  people 
right  and  left.  Then  all  is  quiet  again,  until  a  moment 
later  in  another  part  there  is  another  rumpus.  This  sort 
of  thing  is  getting  to  be  so  common  that  a  fellow  only 
looks  to  see  that  the  horse  is  not  coming  in  the  dirciction 
of  his  own  tent,  and  then  goes  on  with  his  work.  One 
nuiii  was  asleep  in  his  tent,  lo  x  14,  when  a  horse  gal- 
loi)ed  through  it  and  carried  it  off  bodily.  No  one 
gets  hurt,  which  is  amazing.  The  h(jrses  are  green  ; 
tile  men  are  green.  Men  who  have  never  before  han- 
dled a  horse  are  trying  to.  put  pack-saddles  on  them. 
A  f>iw  have  heard  of  the  "diamond  hitch,"  but  no 
one  seems  to  know  how  to  throw  it.  Now  an.d  then  a 
riiler,  in  a  loose  blue  shirt,  from  up  the  trail,  comes  can- 
tering down  to  the  beach,  swinging  his  arm  loosely  at 
his  side,  guiding  his  horse  by  a  jaunty  press  of  the  reins 
against  its  neck.  Every  one  recognizes  the  type  of 
Westerner,  and  says,  "That  man  there  is  all  right." 

A  little  way  back  from  the  beach  are  piles  of  drift- 
wood brought  there  by  storms;  then  there  are  several 
scores  of  tents;  and  then  a  rougb  path  n-hich  people  are 
following  leads  towards  the  grove  of  cottonwoods,  amid 
which  we  get  glimpses  of  other  tents  and  of  new  board 
shanties,  from  which  the  sound  of  a.xes  and  hammers 
comes  upon  the  ear.  The  tents  here  in  the  open  are 
rdl  we  see  of  Skagway.  We  are  too  busy  with  our  affairs 
to  look  beyond.  No  one  is  permitted  to  take  charge  of 
his  goods,  to  carry  them  away,  until  every  parcel  has 
been  landed  and  assorted. 

There  is  a  rumor  that  a  duty  of  $30  a  head  is  to 
be  collected  on  Canadian  horses  ;  and  that  our  freight 
will  not  l)e  delivered  to  us  until  said  duty  has  been  paid. 


1 '  "h 


i 


'M 


: 


T  1 1  IC     K  I.  ( )  X  I)  I  K  E    S  r  A  M  P  R  D  R 

The  rumor  strikes  consternation  anion^  us  all.  We  art' 
inclined  to  discredit  it,  since  horses,  like  tents  and  blank- 
ets, are  to  be  used  on  both  sides  of  the  line.  We  re- 
meniber  the  pains  we  were  at  to  secure  our  transit  pa- 
pers, and  the  reassuring  words  of  the  American  customs 
officer  who  came  on  at  Mary  Island.  Surely,  if  a  person 
has  "got  to  have"  blankets  and  a  tent,  he  has  "got  to 
have"  horses.  What  provision  is  there  for  the  refund- 
ing of  the  duty  after  the  horses  with  packs  have  crossed 
the  line  into  Canada?  We  are  left  no  longer  in  doubt. 
A  dapper  gentleman  in  an  alpine  hat  and  pointed  brown 
shoes,  hailing  from  Portland,  Oregon,  has  set  up  on  a  post 
a  small  American  flag  with  the  perpendicular  stripes 
of  the  revenue  service,  announcing  that  he  is  the  dep- 
uty collector  of  customs  for  the  port,  just  arrived,  and 
demands  on  each  and  every  horse  brought  from  Canada 
the  sum  of  $30.  Says  he  :  "  I  have  my  instructions  from 
the  collector  for  Alaska.  I  don't  know  anything  about 
tents,  blankets,  etc.,  but  I  must  collect  $30  on  every  Ca- 
nadian horse.  You  can  lai\d  the  horses,  init  you  must 
not  use  them  here.  You  can  send  them  through  mi 
charge  of  an  inspector,  but  you  cannot  p'  *  a  ick  -u 
their  backs;  if  you  do  you  will  have  t<  duty — 

that's  all." 

I  ask  him  if  I  may  get  upon  the  back  oi  horsi  f  niy 
own  and  ride  a  little  way  up  the  trail,  to  set  if  is  pos- 
sible to  get  over.  "No,  sir,  you  cannot."  1  remind  him 
that  the  horses  will  cross  eventually  into  Canadian  ter- 
ritory. "They  will  be  of  no  use  when  you  get  there, 
and  you  will  turn  them  loose — or  else  you  will  sell  them 
here,"  he  replies. 

Here  is  a  strip  of  territory,  a  few  miles  in  width,  which 
must  be  crossed  before  Canadian  territory  can  again  be 
reached.     There  are  no  facilities  for  the  transit  of  goods 

SO 


I 


ire 
ik- 
■(,'- 

ins 
i»n 

to 

1(1- 

■il 

hi. 

un 


M 


*'pRr)TECTrr)N"  robbed  the  mixers 

ill  1)1)11(1.  Xot  one  in  twenty  of  those  here  would  will- 
ingly stop.  The  privilege  of  bonding  goods  through  the 
territory  is  elsewhere  extended  by  both  governments; 
but  here  is  a  trail  three  weeks  old  and  no  facilities  for 
transit.  The  only  means  of  transfer  is  the  miner  him- 
self and  his  horse's  back.  The  miner's  word  is  the  only 
bond.     Even  to  lead  the  horse  across  empty,  the  horse 


U.Mri'.I)    STATKS    CI'STOM-TinrSK    AM)    mMMISSIONKU's    Ol'KICK,   SKAC.WAV 


and  the  man  must  eat,  and  the  ma,!  must  carry  on  his 
own  back  tlie  oats  for  his  horse,  as  veil  as  his  own  food, 
according  to  the  ruling  of  ivi;.  Jones,  United  States 
deputy  collectcn-  for  the  sub-i)ort  of  Dyea.  There  is 
nothing  to  do  but  ste|)  up  to  the  custom-house,  look 
pleasant,  and  pay  the  $30  a  head  on  our  stock.  Some- 
body sets  out  to  find  a  high-tariff  Republican,  but  can 

51 


m 


>  I 


lb 


,'   i 


M 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

not  find  one  in  the  camp — no,  I  mistake  ;  there  is  one, 
who  comes  out  and  pays  his  $30  like  a  man. 

The  custom-house  is  a  12  x  16-foot,  one-story,  board 
structure,  containing  a  counter  at  the  front,  a  stove,  a 
desk,  and  some  chairs  in  the  rear.  Besides  the  customs 
officer,  there  are  two  or  three  other  persons  of  the  famil- 
iar type  of  low-grade  government  officials. 

We  did  not  mind  the  remarks  made  by  some  cronies 
of  the  officer,  that  it  "  serves  right  those  who  went  to 
Canada  to  buy  their  stuff,  instead  of  buying  it  in  the 
United  States."  That  is  the  smoke  of  the  Seattle-Victo- 
ria fight,  and  we  very  properly  joined  in  the  laugh  that 
followed  the  sally  of  a  thick  gentleman,  with  a  very  full, 
red  face,  in  his  shirt-sleeves,  and  his  feet  on  the  desk,  who 
remarked  that  newspaper  correspondents  especially  (re- 
ferring to  myself)  should  not  be  let  up  on,  as  they  would 
say  bad  enough  things  anyhow.  But  we  did  mind  the 
hardship  wiiich  the  payment  of  this  duty  meant  upon 
most,  if  not  all,  of  us.  Jim  and  the  boy  could  not  afford 
the  duty  on  their  single  horse  each. 

The  custom-house  is  one  of  the  few  wooden  build- 
ings in  town.  It  is  situated  on  the  main  street,  called,  I 
learn,  "  Broadway,"  but  which  is  nothing  more  than  a 
pair  of  black,  muddy  wagon-ruts  winding  around  stumps 
ill  a  rambling  way  into  the  woods.  A  sign  announces 
the  office  of  the  United  States  commissioner.  Ciovern- 
ment  is  further  represented  here  by  a  deputy  marshal. 
Inquiry  reveals  the  fact  that  properly  the  office  of  all 
three  officials  is  at  Dyea,  which  has  been  made  a  sub-[)ort 
of  Juneau  ;  but,  since  the  creation  of  Dyea  as  a  sub-port, 
White  Pass  trail  has  been  opened,  the  town  of  vSkagway 
started,  and  practically  all  the  business  attending  upon 
the  carrying-on  of  government  has  been  at  Skagway. 
In  order   to  cover  both  points  effectively,  the  court  is 


I    J 


FIRST    GLIMPSE    OF    THE    TRAIL 

held  on  a  point  of  rocks,  known  as  Richard's  Landing, 
half-way  between  the  two  places.  To  this  place  the  com- 
missioner goes  at  stated  intervals  from  Juneau  and  holds 
court. 

Jim  and  I  each  quietly  mount  a  horse  and  slip  off 
up  the  trail.  Words  that  I  have  at  command  cannot 
describe  what  is  unfolded  to  our  eyes.  Only  a  glimpse 
of   the  real  town  did  we   have  from  the  beach.      But 


MAIN    STRKET,    SK.VGWAV 


here,  where  the  open  leaves  off  and  the  trees  begin, 
and  at  a  distance  of  not  more  than  half  a  mile  from 
low  water,  begins  the  town.  Along  the  main  trail  or 
wagon-road  town  lots  have  already  been  staked  off'  and 
claimed.  The  underbrush  has  been  cleared  away  between 
the  cottonwoods  and  spruce,  which  are  a  foot  or  more 
in  diameter,  and  a  piece  of  paper  on  the  face  of  a  tree 
announces  that 

"This  lot,  IOC  feet  along  the  trail  by  50  feet  west,  located  and 
improved  by  J.  Murphy,  August  t4, '97.     Lot  supposed  to  front 

53 


.'11. 


I 


.H»? 


1  i 

■I  f 


J 


; 


;  I) 
Ml 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

on  street  running;  east  and  west  according  to  plot  made  and  rati- 
fied by  tiie  citizens,  August  13,  '97.     See  my  notices  on  stal<es  at 

N.  and  E.  end  of  lot. 

"(Signed)  J.  F.  MuRi'iiv." 

The  "  improvement "  consists  of  a  few  bushes  cleared 
away  to  make  room  for  a  small  "  A  "  tent.  The  owner 
seemed  to  have  moved  onward,  leaving,  however,  his  "im- 
provement "  upon  the  land. 

Another  notice  reads,  in  terse  language,  that  "  this 
claim,  50  by  100,  is  claimed  by  J.  H.  Foot";  and  others 
add  the  names  of  several  competent  witnesses. 

Scattered  on  both  sides  of  the  trail  are  tents  of  every 
size  and  one  or  two  wooden  buildings.  A  ceaseless 
stream  of  men  and  horses  is  moving  up  the  trail  with 
loads,  and  a  stream  is  returning  empty.  Here  at  the 
left  is  a  big  tent  with  large  black  letters  on  the  side  ;  it 
is  the  "Pack  Train  "  saloon.  Beyond  are  the  "  Bonanza" 
and  "  The  Grotto,"  while  across  the  street  a  great  sign 
overhead  bears  the  suggestive  name  of  "  The  Nugget." 
A  glimpse  inside  of  these,  as  one  rides  by,  shows  a  few 
boards  set  up  for  a  bar  in  one  corner,  the  other  corners 
being  filled  with  gambling  lay-outs,  around  which  are 
crowds  of  men  playing  or  looking  on.  Then  come  shops 
where  groceries  and  miners'  supplies  are  being  bought 
and  sold.  Here  a  doctor  has  set  tip  an  apothecary  sho[); 
here  two  young  New  York  boys  are  selling  their  outfit  and 
"waiting  till  spring."  Large  painted  canvas  signs  an- 
nounce eating-houses  —  the  "  Rosalie,"  the  "Kitchen" — 
but  there  is  not  a  lodging  -  house  in  the  place.  Vov  a 
(juarter  of  a  mile  into  the  wockIs  run  the  rows  of  tents, 
while  back  from  the  trail,  and  next  to  the  river,  the 
sotmd  of  a.\es  indicates  that  the  whole  of  the  Hat  is  being 
taken  up.     Here  and  there  is  a  log-hut  going  up. 

Some  of  tile  new  arrivals  iiave  brought  little  carts — 

54 


li 


A    RUNAWAY    HORSE 

a  pair  of  buggy-wheels  on  a  short  axle,  having  a  bed  in 
some  caser  not  more  than  fifteen  inches  wide  and  six  t(j 
eight  feet  long,  with  handles  at  both  ends.  They  load 
these  carts  with  five  or  six  hundred  pounds  of  stuff, 
and  two  men  work  them  along  up  the  trail  ;  or,  if  they 
have  a  horse,  they  load  the  pack-saddle,  then  hitch  the 
horse  in  front  and  start  along,  one  leading  the  horse,  the 
other  steering  and  balancing  the  cart  from  the  rear  end. 


I  ]<: 


"A  nociou  HAS  si  r  rr  an  apothecary  shop 

It  is  an  odd  sight.  One  horse,  when  ready  to  be  loaded 
l)L'side  the  sc(jw,  became  frightenetl,  and  started  up  town 
witli  the  cart  behind  him.  He  ran  into  the  town,  then 
turned  at  riglit  angles,  crossed  a  brancli  of  the  Skag- 
way,  started,  cart  and  all,  up  the  face  of  the  mountain, 
turned  ari)und.  recrossed  the  river,  and  came  back  to  the 
scow,  the  cart  now  ruiniing  right  side  up;  then,  striking  a 

55 


n  m 


m 
m 


1  ' 


f 


f     1, 

I      I 


ii 


-i  i 


.; 


i! 


THE    KLONDIKE    vSTAMPEDE 

ro(it  and  bouncing  ten  feet  into  the  air,  it  landed  upside- 
down.  The  cart  never  ceased  for  more  than  a  moment 
to  run  along,  right  or  wrong  side  up,  on  its  wheels  ;  not 
a  man  was  hurt  nor  a  tent-peg  torn  up,  and  it  all  took 
place  in  full  view,  and  the  crowd  greeted  with  a  shout  each 
time  the  cart  flew  up  and  landed  all  right.  A  moment 
later  the  incident  was  forgotten.  These  little  carts  cost 
$30.  In  a  day  or  two  they  carry  a  whole  outfit  of  two 
or  three  to  the  "  Foot  of  the  Hill,"  and  then  are  sold  for 
what  they  cost.  Others  pack  directly  on  hordes'  backs, 
while  the  greater  portion  of  the  freight  is  carried  by  two- 
horse  wagons  for  i\  cents  a  pound.  I  met  two  fellows 
packing  on  bicycles.  They  had  taken  off  the  pedals,  and 
had  rigged  a  sort  of  frame  on  the  seat,  upon  which  they 
l)acked  nearly  as  much  stuff'  as  a  horse  will  carry — viz., 
220  to  225  pounds. 

^Money  goes  like  water  through  a  sieve.  It  costs  a  dol- 
lar to  look  a  man  in  the  face.  Men  are  like  wolves  :  they 
literally  feed  upon  one  another.  Wages  for  packers — 
any  one  who  can  carry  75  to  100  pounds  on  his  back  and 
work  ten  hours  —  are  $7.50  a  day  upward.  "Experi- 
enced" horse-packers  are  getting  as  high  as — in  one  in- 
stance— $20  a  day.  The  teamsters  iivv  niaking  more  than 
that.  One  was  heard  growling  because  he  had  only  made 
!$5o  that  day;  they  sometimes  make  $100.  Horseshoe- 
nails  arc  ."*!r  a  pound  at  Skagway ;  at  the  "Foot  of  the 
Hill,"  'o  cents  apiece  ;  and  a  single  horseshoe,  $2.50. 
Rubber  boots  worth  $5  sell  for  $9.  A  shoemaker,  a 
blacksmith,  a  watchmaker,  also,  have  set  up  siioj).  A 
constant  surprise  is  the  number  of  women.  Some  of 
these  are  at  the  dance-h(nise,  but  the  majority  arc  the 
wives  of  miners.  There  is  but  one  child  in  the  whole 
place.  It  is  a  town  of  grown-u]i  peo])le.  The  women 
dress,  some  ol  them,  in   short  skirts,  with  leather  leg- 

•     56 


THE    SKAGWAY    RIVER 


it 


ginj^s   or  rubber   boots,  or  else    ia   out-and-out  men's 
trousers. 

There  has  been  no  disorder  to  speak  of.  Excepting 
the  gamblers,  there  are  few  who  might  be  said  to  rep- 
resent a  disorderly  element.  And  this,  no  doubt,  is  due 
to  the  fact  that  every  man  here,  except  those  who  have 
come  up  from  the  nearby  towns  of  Juneau  and  Sitka, 
have  had  to  have  the  price  to  get  in.  This  is  no  country 
for  tramjis  and  loafers. 


I'  ] 


'■»4mK: 


I 


A    I.K..\I)INi;     IIUIKL 


I  stop  and  ask  a  man  what  is  the  name  of  the  main 
street.  "Oh,  don't  ask  me,"  he  replies.  "I've  been  here 
a  week,  and  I  come  up  here  every  day,  and  I  get  lost." 
^\11  is  movement  and  action.  There  is  nothing  fixed. 
The  tent  of  yesterday  is  a  wooden  building  to-day. 
A  smooth  spot  and  some  tent- pin  holes  show  where  a 
lent  stood  yesterday. 

The   Skagway    River   is  a  swift   stream    of   three   or 

57 


I    n-i 


i 


■ 


■ik„. 


1 

1 

1 

^; 

! 
i 

"i 

1 

^  1: 
i  }  ■■ 

\ 

• 

■f   . 


Is 


i'  V 


1 1 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

four  rods'  width  at  its  mouth.  It  rises  far  away  in 
the  midst  of  the  bhie  peaks  of  the  Chilkoots,  which 
grow  bhier  and  bhier  until  they  merge  into  the  sky. 
The  sides  of  the  mountains  slope  at  an  angle  of  some 
forty  -  five  degrees,  and  against  their  tops  lie  eternal 
glaciers  and  patches  of  snow.  The  river's  current  is 
even  but  forceful,  and  so  swift  as  anywhere  to  bear  a 
man  off  his  feet,  even  though  no  deeper  than  to  his 
knees.  Its  water  is  milky,  from  the  sediment  it  bears 
down  from  the  mountains,  and  its  banks  are  scarcely 
more  than  two  or  three  feet  high,  extending  back  per- 
fectly level  on  either  one  or  both  sides  to  the  steep  sides 
of  the  valley,  and  covered  with  a  dark  loamy  soil  from 
the  decaying  vegetation  of  centuries  and  a  luxuriant 
growth  of  cottonwoods,  spruces,  hemlocks,  and  white 
birches.  The  trail  reminds  one  of  any  newly  cut  road  in 
the  forests  of  the  Adirondacks  or  Canada.  At  a  distance 
of  a  mile  and  a  half  from  low  water  it  crosses  the  river 
from  the  right  hand  to  the  left  by  a  log  bridge,  built 
by  the  miners,  wide  enough  for  the  pack-trains  and  the 
hand-carts,  but  too  narrow  for  the  large  wagons,  which 
have  to  unload  on  the  gravelly  bank. 

Leaving  the  river,  the  trail  leads  on  for  some  two  miles. 
Tents  are  scattered  along  the  way,  and  one  is  never 
out  of  sight  of  men  coming  or  going.  About  four  mik-s 
and  a  sight  meets  the  eye.  Tiie  spa(~e  between  the  tree 
trunks  lias  been  cleared  of  underbrush,  and  is  filled  with 
tents,  side  by  side,  only  a  few  feet  apart,  on  both  sides  of 
the  trail,  and  extending  back  the  widtii  of  the  valley, 
which  is  here  cpiite  narrow.  The  men  have  set  up  their 
stoves  and  himg  out  hundreds  of  pounds  of  bacon  to  dry, 
and  the  air  is  laden  witli  the  savory  smell  of  sm'>ked 
meat  and  the  cam])- tires;  for  it  is  evening,  ai  vi  the 
men   are   returning  from  the  trail.     Weary  horses  are 

5« 


o 
PI 


H 


C 
O 


r. 

V. 


if 
^1 

T 


A  T    T  HE    "  F  {)  O  T    OF    THE    H  I  L  L  '  ' 


eating  hay  and  oats  alongside  tarpaulin-covered  piles  of 
goods. 

There  are  Hfty  or  sixty  tents  in  all,  and  the  roadway  be- 
tween is  packed  smoothly  by  hundreds  of  feet.  There 
nre  more  women  here — one  is  baking  biscuit  and  selling 
them  hot  for  25  cents  a  dozen.  All  are  cutting  down 
outfits.  The  wagon-road  stops,  and  now  what  seems  to 
be  only  a  foot-path  makes  a  sudden  turn  to  the  left  and 
boldly  climbs_up  the  steep  mountain-side.  This  is  the 
trail,  this  the  Hill,  and  the  crowds  of  tents  and  men 
make  the  town  at  the  "  Foot  of  the  Hill"  the  resting-spot 
before  the  struggle.  We  hitch  our  horses  and  proceed 
on  foot.  To  convey  an  idea  of  the  Hill,  one  must  have 
recourse  to  illustration,  and  I  can  find  none  more  apt 
than  that  used  by  one  who  has  been  over  it  :  "  Imagine  a 
mountain  of  goods-boxes,  some  of  them  being  bigger  than 
the  rest — the  size  of  tents."  Imagine  them  piled  in  a 
rough  mass,  cover  them  with  moss  and  black  loam  and 
trees,  with  rills  of  water  trickling  down  among  them. 
The  goods-boxes  are  granite  bowlders  ;  their  outer  sur- 
faces protrude  from  the  mass,  hard  and  bare,  but  nature 
has  covered  the  rest  with  rich  vegetation.  The  path — 
if,  indeed,  it  can  be  called  one — twists  and  turns  and 
worms  its  way  frtMii  ledge  to  ledge  and  between  the 
masses  oi  bowlders.  Here  a  tree  has  been  cut  down, 
and  we  clamber  over  its  stump.  There  a  corduroy 
bridge  lifts  one  over  a  brook.  Men  with  stout  alpen- 
stocks and  with  [)acks  painfully  struggle  upward,  stop- 
ping now  and  again  for  rest.  It  has  been  compara- 
tively dry  for  a  day,  and  the  trail  is  said  to  be  not  so  bad. 
Between  the  bowlders  it  has  packed  fairly  well,  and,  but 
for  its  steepness,  would  be  called  a  good  path.  We  as- 
cend a  distance  of  several  hundred  feet — not  quite  to 
the  to]),  we  are  told.     On  every  ledge  and  bench  tents 

61 


:'     J 


1 


I! 


injt  ■ 


1    , 


; 


T  II  E    K  r.  ()  X  I)  r  K  p.    S  T  A  M  I'  IC  I)  IC 

are  set  up,  or  piles  of  sacks,  so  near  the  patli  that  one  can 
reach  out  one's  hand  and  tf)uch  them.  Men  in  from  the 
day's  work  are  cookini>"  or  recHiiing  beside  their  j^oods. 
Their  rifles  are  in  easy  reach.  Pilfering  has  l)een  jioinjjf 
on,  and  the  men  who  are  lying  by  their  goods  will  shoot 
at  sight.  A  string  of  horses  and  mules  is  returning 
down  the  Hill,  and  we  see  now  the  difference  in  horses. 


JL^TIilAiU.I.    Ill.^l  lAllO.N 

The  lank,  big,  clumsy  horse  is  in  danger  at  every  step. 
He  comes  to  a  drop-otT.  lifts  his  head  in  air,  tosses  his 
fore  -  feet  ahead  with  a  groan,  and  trusts  to  chance  to 
find  a  footing.  He  strikes  a  sloping  rock,  flounders  for 
a  foothold,  and  down  he  goes  sideways  and  rolls  over.  A 
string  of  several  do/en  went  ixist,  but  none  actually 
fell.     The  little  cavusc,  or  Indian  pony,  however,  like  the 

62 


HOW    Tlir:    HORSES    FAT.  L 

imiles,  looks  where  every  foot  is  placed  One  cayitse  got 
out  of  the  train  and  caine  to  a  piteh-off  of  ten  or  twelve 
feet;  we  looked  to  see  it  break  its  neck,  but  it  siniplv 
put  its  head  down,  slid  over  the  face  of  the  bowlder,  and 
landed  squarely  and  lii^hlly  as  a  goat.  Another  which 
we  just  heard  of  went  down  a  forty-foot  hnuk.  and  was 
back  on  the  trail  workinjj^  next  day.  We  set  out  down 
the  Hill  aii:ain.  When  we  are  near  the  bottom  we  meet 
a  small  train  cominij^  up  in  charji;e  of  two  men. 

At  the  foot  of  the  steej)  ascent  the  train  stops  and 
one  horse  jj^oes  ahead.  He  comes  to  a  step-ut)  of  over 
two  feet,  he  gets  his  fore- feet  up,  gives  a  desperate 
lunge  to  get  his  hind-parts  up,  slips,  and  falls,  his  whole 
weight  and  that  of  his  load  falling  on  the  sharp  to])  of 
a  stump,  where  he  flounders  and  kicks  pitifully.  We 
help  the  men  cut  the  load  off,  roll  him  over  on  his  back 
off  the  stump,  and  help  him  to  his  feet,  and  he  gets  uj) 
with  scarcely  a  scratch.  That  is  one  fall,  the  first  we 
have  seen.  We  are  told  that  fifty  horses  a  day  fall  here. 
No  one  thinks  anything  about  it.  The  other  horses  are 
led  up,  one  by  one,  the  men  choosing  each  step  for 
them.  This  seems  to  be  the  only  way  to  do  with  horses 
that  are  not,  like  goats,  used  to  looking  where  a  foot  goes 
down.  Most  of  the  falls  occur  where  two  smooth  sur- 
faces of  rock  come  together  in  a  notch,  furnishing  no 
foothold.  If  there  is  soft  mud  in  the  notch,  and  the  sides 
arc  wet  and  slippery,  the  horse  goes  down  with  a  smash, 
and  it  is  lucky  if  a  broken  leg  does  not  result. 


M 


CHAPTER    IV 


ii 


f 


ar 


I'ack-horNCs  go  Ui  Dye.i — l.ifc  in  Skay;\vay — Kxperienccs  of  Old-Timers — 
Start  on  tlie  Skagway  'I'rail — Terrors  of  tla-  Trail  —  Dead  II()r>es — 
Mud  and  Rocks — Terrible  Condition  of  Men  ant!  Horses — A  Nii;Iit 
Canij) — Trail  I'loscd  until  Repairs  are  Maile — Return  to  Ska<j\\ay 

.ii/i^uisf  21. 

'O-DAY  a  proposition  is  made  by  a 
^^^..^aI  man  by  the  name  of  Charles  Lead- 
BHMV  better,  of   San  Francisco,  who   is  just 

/\TI\      I  over  from  Dyea,  to  take  all  oiu'  stuft", 

not  exceeding  three  thousand  pounds 
when  delivered  to  him  at  Dyea  ;  to 
team  it  thence  to  the  head  of  canoe  navigation  ;  there 
put  it  on  his  pack-train,  which  will  carry  it  to  The 
Scales,  which  is  at  the  foot  of  the  summit  ;  there 
two  men  will  be  given  us  to  help  us  pack  our  stuff 
over  the  summit  —  a  distance  of  from  three  -  cpiarters 
of  a  mile  to  a  mile  to  Crater  Lake ;  there  we  will 
have  to  ferry  it  over  the  lake,  when  it  will  be  taken 
on  a  burro  train  to  Long  Lake,  where  there  is  an- 
other ferry,  and  then  again  on  the  burros  to  Lake 
Lindeman,  which  is  the  point  of  departure.  We  shall 
be  expected  to  hel[)  with  the  pack-train,  if  neces- 
sary, and  all  this  he  will  do  in  return  for  our  eight 
horses.  It  seems  a  reasonable  proposition,  except 
that  we  are  surprised  at  the  time  allowed  —  namely, 
four  or  five  days  —  for  making  the  trip  through  to 
Lake  Lindeman.     It  is  agreeable  news  that   goods  are 

64 


THE    SALOON    IN    SKAOWAV 

moving  riy;ht  along  on  the  Dyea  trail.  We  still  have  no 
doubt  of  getting  through  White  Pass,  but  we  gladly  hail 
any  proposition  which  will  land  us  quickly  and  without 
great  trouble  at  the  head  of  navigation  of  the  Yukon. 

The  terms  do  not  include  our  boat  lumber.  We  are 
advised  to  cut  it  into  lengths  of  seven  feet,  suitable  for 
horse-packing,  but  it  has  come  thus  far  in  whole  lengths, 
and  we  desire  to  keep  it  so  as  long  as  possible.  Accord- 
ingly, we  deliver  our  horses,  with  a  ton  of  feed,  to  the 
packer,  who  takes  them  over  on  a  scow  in  tow  of  a  tug- 
boat, which  makes  trips  between  Dyea  and  Skagway  as 
often  and  at  such  times  as  the  tide  permits.  The  cost 
for  transportation  is  $io  a  head.  Our  intention  is  to 
follow  at  the  earliest  date. 

There  is  no  shady  side  to  life  at  Skagway  ;  everything 
goes  on  in  broad  daylight  or  candle-light.  After  supper 
every  tent  is  lighted  up,  and  the  streets  are  crowded 
with  muddy  men  in  from  the  trail.  The  "  Pack  Train  " 
is  filled  with  people,  among  whom  I  recognize  several  of 
my  friends,  who  are  drawn  hither,  like  myself,  by  the 
spectacle.  The  tent  of  the  biggest  saloon  in  town  is 
thirty  by  fifty  feet.  Entering  through  a  single  door  in 
front,  on  the  right  hand  is  a  rough  board  bar  some  ten 
or  twelve  feet  long,  with  some  shelves  against  the  rear 
wall,  on  which  are  a  few  glasses  and  bottles.  The  bar- 
tender, who  is  evidently  new  to  his  business,  apologizes 
for  the  whiskey,  which  is  very  poor  and  two-thirds  water, 
and  sells  for  25  cents.  Cigars  of  a  two-for-five  or  five- 
cent  sort,  that  strain  one's  suction  powers  to  the  limit, 
are  sold  for  from  15  to  25  cents  «ach.  They  keep  beer 
also,  on  tap.  After  the  lecture  we  received  on  the 
steamer  from  the  United  States  customs  officer,  we  are 
at  a  loss  to  understand  how  whiskey  can  be  sold  openly 
under  the  very  eyes  of  the  officers.  But  that  is  a  story 
£  65 


I 


u 


■feiB^ 


w 


I  I 
i!   i! 


■:!  , 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

by  itself.  Along  each  side  of  the  tent  are  the  three- 
card  monte,  the  rouge-et-noir,  and  other  lay-outs,  but 
not  a  iaro  lay-out  in  the  place  nor  in  the  town.  The 
gamblers  are  doing  big  business. 

A  big,  strapping  felh^w,  in  a  yellow  Mackinaw  jacket, 
trying  his  luck  at  craps,  is  pointed  out  as  having  just  come 


^. 


A   PROFITABLE    ENTERPRISE 


in  over  the  trail  from  Klondike.*  Whether  he  has  any 
dust  with  him  I  do  not  learn,  but  he  is  in  fine  health  and 
spirits.  Every  man  whom  I  have  yet  seen  from  Klondike 
has  a  splendid  complexion  and  seems  strong  and  robust. 
This  fellow  has  a  voice  like  a  lion's,  deep  and  resonant. 
Surely  the  Yukon  cannot  be  so  terrible  if  it  does  this  to 
men,  or  else  its  tale  of  death  is  that  of  the  weak  and  sickly. 


*  Ramps  Peterson,  a  well-known  Yukon  dog-puncher. 

66 


t 
e 


TESTIMONY    OF    OLD-TIMERS 

Across  the  street  the  sound  of  -i  piano  and  the  moving 
figures  of  men  and  women  seer.  :  'irough  the  windows  re- 
mind one  that  there  is  a  dance  to-night,  as  on  every  night. 
This  piano  is  the  only  (ne  in  town,  and  its  arrival  is  said 
to  have  been  an  event.  The  four  women  in  the  place 
are  not  even  of  the  painted  sort ;  paint  might  have  cov- 
ered up  some  of  the  marks  of  dissipation.  Chunsy  boots 
beat  time  on  a  dirty  floor,  but  not  with  much  enthusi- 
asm. There  is  not  sport  enough  to  get  up  as  much  as  a 
quadrille.  The  dance-house  of  a  mining-town  !  Such  a 
thing  as  shame  is  not  even  thought  of. 

Among  the  many  who  are  gazing  upon  the  unaccus- 
tomed scene,  with  the  same  absorbed  interest  as  the 
youngest  of  us,  are  men  whom  I  take  to  be  old-timers. 
I  asked  one  of  these  what  he  thought  of  it  all. 

Said  he  :  "  I  was  in  the  Salmon  River  mining  excite- 
ment in  Idc'io,  but  I  have  never  seen  anything  like  this. 
Ten  thoiisand  people  went  in  that  winter,  over  a  single 
trai'  across  the  mountains  ;  but  it  was  nothing  like  this. 
There  has  never  been  anything  on  this  coast  like  it." 

Another,  who  is  now  the  mayor  of  a  town  on  the  Pa- 
cific coast  not  far  from  the  Strait  of  Fuca,  said,  in  an- 
swer to  the  same  (juestion:  "I  saw  the  beginning  x^f 
Leadville,  but  it  was  nothing  like  this  ;  there  has  been 
nothing  like  this." 

Still  another,  a  mining  engineer  i  om  California,  said  : 
"  I  have  never  seen  people  act  as  they  do  here.  They 
have  lost  their  heads  and  their  senses.  I  have  never 
seen  men  behave  as  they  do  here.  They  have  no  more 
idea  of  what  they  are  going  to  than  that  horse  has.  There 
was  one  fellow  in  the  tent  alongside  of  mine — I  saw  him 
greasing  his  rubber  boots.  I  said  to  him,  'What  are  you 
doing  that  for?"  '  Why,  isn't  that  all  right?'  he  asked. 
Another  man  came  along  and  asked  a  fellow  where  his 

67 


(f; 


9  ■*^^e?5-rf' L 1*  f -' 


THE    KLONDIKE    vSTAMP^:DE 


mining-pan  was.  The  fellow  said,  '  I  haven't  seen  any 
mining-pan."  Just  then  the  man  saw  the  pan  lying  along- 
side the  tent,  and  said,  '  Here  it  is  !  Is  that  a  mining- 
pan  ?    I  didn't  know  that  was  a  mining-pan.'  " 

I  have  talked  with  many  others,  some  who  had  been  in 
the  Coeur  d'Alene  excitement  on  Salmon  River,  Idaho, 
and  have  been  miners  since  '53  and  '54.  Some,  whose 
fathers  were  of  the  old  '49's,  say  the  same  thing — that  the 
country  has  gone  mad  over  this  Klondike  business.  And 
all  agree  as  to  the  reason — nowadays  the  news  is  carried 
by  the  telegraph  and  newspaper  to  all  parts  of  the  world, 
whereas  formerly  the  excitement  was  all  local,  and  had 
died  away  before  word  of  it  reached  the  rest  of  the  world. 

No  one  pretends  to  follow  the  changes  that  are  going 
on  here.  Those  who  have  been  here  a  week  are  old- 
timers.  When  the  next  boat  arrives  people  will  ask 
questions  of  us  in  turn. 

August  22. 

The  work  of  unloading  the  vessel  continues.  Most  of 
the  hay  and  the  lumber  has  been  loaded  upon  a  scow  and 
hauled  inshore,  so  that  the  vessel  can  clear  for  the  south 
on  time.  As  the  quickest  way  to  get  the  lumber  off,  six 
or  seven  of  us  take  hold  of  the  scow,  throw  the  lumber 
into  the  water,  and  raft  it  ashore.  It  is  noon  before  we 
discover  that  it  is  Sunday.  Sunday  makes  no  difference 
in  Skagway.  All  the  goods  aie  now  landed,  pnd  each 
man  is  carrying  away  what  belongs  to  him  —  also  some 
that  doesn't  belong  to  him,  if  there  are  any  grounds  for 
the  vigorous  complaints  made  to  the  checkers.  After 
the  confusion  aboard  in  the  hold,  the  wonder  is  that  any 
one  gets  what  belongs  to  him. 

It  is  raining  again  to-night.  None  of  the  weather 
signs  we  are  accustomed  to  in  the  East  holds  good  here. 
A  man  who  lived  six  years  back  of  the  Chilkoot  Moun- 

68 


LYNN    CANAL 

tains  says  thai  in  this  part  of  Alaska,  at  this  time  of  the 
year,  it  will  be  clear  and  cold  for  four  days,  and  then  it 
will  rain  four  days.  It  has  rained  the  four  days  all 
rij^ht,  and  we  are  looking  for  the  four  sunny  ones.  This 
wet  weather  is  discouraging.    Every  one  feels  miserable. 


i  \i 


Aiii^nist  23. 

Day  breaks  clear.  It  is  full  daylight  at  five  or  six. 
The  sky  is  cloudless  and  the  air  is  warm.  Every  one  is 
happy. 

I  engage  a  man,  who  hails  from  Texas,  with  a  thirty- 
foot  dory  (which  he  says  came  up  in  pieces  from  San 
Francisco  to  go  over  the  mountain,  and  which  he  pur- 
chased for  a  few  dollars  at  the  beach),  to  take  all  my 
stuff  to  Dyea.  The  wind  is  piping  up  Lynn  Canal,  toss- 
ing up  the  white-caps,  and  heavy  breakers  are  rolling  in 
on  the  beach.  Our  skipper  is  sure  of  his  boat,  so  we 
take  my  own  twelve  hundred  pounds,  with  the  boat  lum- 
ber, a  ton  of  hay  and  oats,  and  a  tho'isand  pounds  of 
baggage  belonging  to  one  of  my  fellow-passengers  on  the 
[sla)idc}%  who  has  seen  both  trails,  and  pronounces  un- 
hesitatingly in  favor  of  Dyea.  He  is  Monsieur  I'Abbe, 
a  lumberman  and  merchant  from  Port  Arthur,  Lake  Su- 
perior. 

Lynn  Canal  is  a  long,  deep  trench  between  towering 
mountains,  like  a  great  fresh-water  lake.  The  water  is 
only  slightly  salt  to  the  taste.  It  is  hard  to  believe  that 
it  is  the  sea.  It  is  as  cold  as  the  melting  ice  from  scores 
of  glaciers  on  the  mountain-tops  can  make  it,  and  a  man 
could  not  swim  twenty  yards  in  such  a  chill.  It  is  a 
marvel  that  any  of  the  horses  thrown  overboard  reached 
shore. 

After  a  dangerous  passage  through  the  heavy  seas  that 
nearlv  swamp  us  with  our  top-heavy  load,  we  round  the 

69 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 


i  )  ' 


point  of  rocks,  and,  with  the  wind  behind  us,  are  driven 
rapidly  tcnvards  the  mouth  of  the  Dyea  pass.  We  follow 
the  rijrht-hand  shore,  where  the  rocks  boldly  rise  per- 
pendicularly from  the  water,  and  presently  meet  a  swift 
current  in  the  mouth  of  the  Dyea  River,  a  stream  twice 
the  size  of  the  Skagway,  flowing  seaward  through  a 
broad  alluvial  plain. 

We  go  a  little  way,  wading  and   dragging   the   boat 
against  the  current,  and  land  in  the  midst  of  a  number  of 


A    VIEW    OK    DYKA 

tents  and  piles  of  baggage.  Leadbetter  himself  is  not 
here,  but  his  teamster  and  wagon  are,  so,  leaving  word 
with  Monsieur  1  Abbe  and  another  that  my  stuft"  has  ar- 
rived, I  go  back  to  Skagway.  After  a  desperate  tussle 
against  the  wind,  making  almost  no  headway,  we  go 
ashore  in  a  cove,  and  reach  Skagway  afoot. 

During  a  temporary  absence  of  Jim  and  the  boy  a  run- 
away steer  kicked  some  sparks  from  a  Hre  against  the 
back  of  the  tent,  which  had  burned  out  half  the  end  of  the 
tent  before  neighbors  extinguished  it.  This  is  the  story, 
but  J  think  tlic  wind  blt.nv  the  sparks  from  said  neigh- 

70 


M 


START    ON    THE    SKAGWAY    TRAIL 


bors'  camp-fire.  The  fire,  however,  burned  the  cover 
and  part  of  the  leather  ofi^  my  camera,  yet  without  luirt- 
ing  the  camera.  It  destroyed  the  tripod  cover  without 
touching  the  tripod;  it  burned  the  gun -case  without 
hurting  the  rifle ;  it  burned  some  twenty  pages  of  my 
diary,  but  took  the  back,  where  there  was  no  writing, 
instead  of  the  front  leaves.  The  actual  loss  vvas  a  few 
envelopes.     Altogether  a  remarkable  escape. 

Jim  and  Burghardt  are  ready  to  go  to  Dyea  ;  so,  giv- 
ing them  directions,  I  take  my  5x7  camera  and  start  in 
on  the  Skagway  trail.  With  the  perversity  of  Alaska 
weather,  it  begins  to  rain  by  the  time  the  "  Foot  of  the 
Hill"  is  reached.  There  are  only  a  few  horses  moving  in 
at  this  time  of  day.  At  the  summit  of  the  Hill  the  nar- 
row trail  follows  the  steep  bank  of  a  ravine,  and  here 
we  see  the  first  victim  of  the  trail — a  horse  lying  at  the 
foot  of  the  bank,  twenty  feet  down,  beside  a  small  stream. 
It  is  dead  now,  but  before  it  died  some  stakes  were  driven 
around  it  to  keep  it  out  of  the  water. 

Just  now  we  met  a  man  who  says  that  a  horse  has  just 
tumbled  ofif  the  trail  and  down  in  a  hole  between  two 
or  three  immense  bowlders,  and  that  only  its  head  is 
stickirg  out,  and  that  it  is  alive.  We  keep  on  along  com- 
paratively level  bowlder -strewn  ground,  and  evidently 
pass  the  spot  indicated,  which  is  not  surprising,  as  bushes 
and  trees  cover  every  spot  and  hide  the  treacherous  holes. 
We  are  going  on  firm  bottom,  with  numerous  corduroys 
over  muck-holes,  but  ankle-deep  in  sloi^py,  slimy,  choco- 
late-colored mud.  It  looks  perhaps  worse  than  it  is. 
Horses  and  men,  bags  and  pack-covers,  are  tlyod  with 
this  brown  stain.  Again  the  trail  mounts  the  slf)po  of 
the  mountain,  by  a  way  so  rocky  that  it  would  seem  as 
if  no  horse  could  get  up  it.  The  smooth,  fiat  sides  of 
rocks   sU>{)e  inward,  affording  w  foothold  to  a  horse 

7' 


('  ( 


\l   ^' 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 


We  meet  a  young  man  on  horseback  coming  down  the 
worst  of  these  places.  We  step  aside  and  curse  under 
our  breath  the  man  who  would  ride  a  horse  down  such  a 
place.    We  did  not  know  then  that  he  had  a  broken  foot. 

A  c  o  r  d  u  r  o  y 
bridge,  sloping 
at  an  angle  of 
fully  forty  de- 
grees, was  soon 
afterwards  put 
over  the  whole 
length  of  this 
pitch.  The 
logs  give  a 
hold  to  the 
shoe-calks  that 
the  rocks  do 
not.  Where 
the  horses 
slide  and 
scrape  the 
rocks  it  looks 
like  the  work 
of  chisels. 

The     trail 

climbs    from 

J,  .^-.  ..-^.    ,     .  .BrNt»i*.p.> -i^-ir  — w    mm-     tcrrace  to  ter- 

lows  the  brink 

PACKING    OVKR    THK    HU.t  of  pcrpeUdicU- 

lar  cliffs,  but 
all  is  so  covered  with  lu.\urious  vegetation  that  the 
heights  above  and  the  depths  below  {\o  not  impress  one. 
We  come  to  an  empty  pack-saddle,  and  know  something 


It  : ! 


TERRORS    OF    THE    S  K  A  GW  A  Y    T  R  A  I  L 


a 
t. 

y 


has  happened  here,  as  down  the  mountain-side  the  bush- 
es are  bruised,  as  if  some  heavy  body  had  rolled  down. 
We  need  no  one  to  tell  us  that  over  the  eliff  a  horse  has 
rolled  hundreds  of  feet,  and  lies  out  of  sight  amonp^  the 
bushes.  Again  an  almost  unbearable  stench  announces 
an  earlier  victim. 

Every-  man  we  meet  tells  of  the  trials  of  the  trail. 
Anxious  and  weary  are  they.  I  saw  one  half-way  uj)  a 
hill  asleep  on  his  pack,  with  his  closed  eyes  towards  the 
sky  and  the  ram  pattering  on  his  face,  which  was  as  pale 
as  death.  It  gave  me  a  start,  until  I  noticed  his  dee[) 
breathing.  A  little  way  on  three  horses  lie  dead,  two  of 
them  half  buried  in  the  black  quagnure,  and  the  horses 
step  over  their  bodies,  without  a  look,  and  painfully 
struggle  on.  Now  (only  two  miles  by  survey,  but  three 
or  four  to  every  one  who  passes  over)  the  trail  begins  its 
steep  plunge  down  the  side  of  Porcupine  Ridge,  switch- 
ing back  and  forth.  At  the  turns  it  seems  as  if  nothing 
could  prevent  a  loaded  horse  from  going  clean  over. 
The  bank  goes  downward  nearly  perpendicular  several 
hundred  feet,  when  one  lanos  in  the  narrow  gorge  of 
the  Porcupine,  a  branch  of  the  vSkagway.  Here  are 
more  tents  —  another  breathing -spot.  The  Porcupine 
is  crossed  by  a  corduroy  bridge,  and  the  ascent  begins 
again.  The  surface  of  the  rocks  is  now  more  in  evi- 
dence, and  the  trail  leads  over  these,  slippery  with  tram- 
pled mud. 

Graduallv.  stage  by  stage,  the  trail  rises,  followuig  the 
sloping  shelves  of  bare  rock,  so  smo(Hh  as  to  afford  n<j 
foothold.  In  one  place,  for  two  or  three  hundred  feet, 
the  shelf  that  the  trail  follows  slopes  upward,  anil  ai  'he 
same  time  outward.  A  horse  here  needs  something 
more  than  calketl  shoes  tt)  hold  on  by.  No  safe  trail  ean 
be  made    until  steps  are  cut   bodily   into  these  places. 

75 


■  i     ! 


\m 


I  liii 


m 


iM 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 


Where  there  are  no  rocks  there  are  boggy  holes.  It  is 
all  rocks  and  mud — rocks  and  mud. 

Suddenly  the  trail  opens  out  on  the  mountain-side, 
and  a  magnificent  view  is  presented  to  the  eye.  Across 
the  valley  a  rugged  mountain,  sloping,  a  mile  in  height ; 
and  down  far  away  to  the  westward  the  blue  hills  and  the 
smoke  (^f  Skagway,  with  Lynn  Canal  showing  a  three- 
cornered  patch  of  lighter  color.     It  is  magnificent. 

Five  or  six  hundred  feet  below  we  can  hear  the  roar  of 
the  waters.  Another  pitch  downward  and  we  are  again 
on  the  Skagway  River.  Why  the  trail  did  not  f'  How  the 
Skagway,  without  climbing  these  two  terrible  ridges, 
none  of  us  can  comprehend.  The  railway,  of  course,  will 
follow  the  river-bed,  or  else  tunnel  through  the  Chil- 
koot  Mountains.  Tents  and  piles  of  goods  are  scattered 
thickly  along  the  trail.  No  one  knows  how  many  people 
there  are.  We  guess  five  thousand — there  may  be  more 
— and  two  thousand  head  of  horses.  Of  course  there  are 
means  of  knowing,  if  one  has  kept  track  of  arrivals  of 
steamers  at  Skagway,  but  no  one  I  know  has  bothered. 
A  steamer  arrives  and  empties  several  hundred  people 
and  tons  of  goods  into  the  mouth  of  the  trail,  and  the 
trail  absorbs  them  as  a  sponge  drinks  up  water.  They 
are  lost  amid  the  gulches  and  trees. 

Every  one  is  discouraged.  Dirty  and  muddy  from  head 
to  foot,  wet  and  tired,  it  is  no  wonder.  Men  who  have 
been  on  the  trail  two  weeks  are  no  farther  than  this. 
They  tell  of  parties  who  have  reached  even  the  sum- 
mit, and  there,  disheartened,  have  sold  out  and  come 
back.  Some  say  boats  have  been  carried  as  far  as  the 
summit  and  there  deserted.  Others  say  boats  cannot  be 
taken  over  at  all.  The  trail  is  lined  from  Skagway  to  the 
"Foot  of  the  Hill"  with  boat  lumber  enough,  as  one  per- 
son said,  to  make  a  corduroy  road  the  length  of  the  trail. 

74 


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^IV"^"*^1'*I» 


IS 


ON    TIIK  "hlAD    HORSK"  TRAIL 


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A    NKHIT    ON    SKACnVAY    TRAIL 

Darkness  comes  on,  and  I  stoj)  for  the  ni^ht  wilh  two 
old  prospectors,  alongside  u  j^ranite  bowlder  as  \)\^  as  a 
house.  Against  its  Hat  side,  and  partially  protected  by 
it,  they  have  piled  their  stutl,  in  the  very  spot  1  sluudd 
have  chosen  for  my  bed.  They  have  a  small  fire  K<>''iK' 
and  their  three  horses  are  tied  to  bushes  near  by,  munch- 
inj^  their  oats.  The  men  are  well  provided  with  blankets, 
which,  when  supper  is  over,  are  spread  out  on  the  j;rou;id 
beside  the  pile  of  goods,  while  a  rope  is  stretched  to  keep 
the  horses  from  tramping  on  the  bed.  They  are  both  old 
miners.  One,  a  man  of  fifty -four,  had  been  in  lormer 
mining  excitements,  and  he  had  seen  bad  trails.  Now 
every  sort  of  opinion  has  been  expressed  of  this  trail; 
and  when  a  man  tells  me  a  trail  is  bad,  that  counts  for 
nothing  until  I  know  what  his  idea  of  bad  is.  I  asked 
this  man  what  he  thought  of  this  trail.     Said  he  : 

"  I  have  seen  worse  trails  for  a  short  distance — five  or 
six  miles  or  so — but  this  is  the  worst  I  have  ever  seen  for 
the  distance.  I  went  in  over  the  trail  when  it  w.s  first 
cut  through,  and  I  called  it  then  a  ^ifooc/  trail,  but  I  pre- 
dict that  if  the  rains  keep  up  it  will  be  impossible  to  get 
a  horse  over." 

It  has  stopped  raining.  We  lay  our  coats  under  our 
heads  for  pillows,  and  our  guns  under  the  coats,  and 
turn  in.  Of  course  Ave  cannot  take  off  anything  but  our 
coats  and  boots.  We  wake  up  in  the  middle  of  the  night 
with  the  rain  in  our  faces.  I  put  my  broad  hat  (jver  my 
face,  turn  over,  and  go  to  sleep  again. 

Att^^/ts/  24. 

We  are  uj)  at  five  o'clock.  Half  an  hour  later  I  am  on 
the  trail.  There  are  several  others  on  the  trail  with  their 
packs.  Everybody,  no  matter  how  dirty  or  tired,  would 
give  any  price  for  a  photograph  of  himself,  "  just  to  send 
back  home  to  show  what  I  am  like."     The  men  imagine 

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their  friends  would  be  surprised  to  see  them  begrimed 
and  unshaven  and  muddy  under  their  packs. 

We  cross  the  Skagway  on  another  corduroy  bridge, 
where  a  fine  view  up  and  down  the  valley  is  to  be  had. 
Near  here  a  stream  of  water  come?  down  the  mountain- 
side out  of  the  clouds,  and  before  it  is  half-way  down  it 
divides  into  several  more  streams,  which  I'nd  their  way 
into  the  Skagway  in  a  dozen  places.  The  dullest  or  least 
sentimental  man  on  the  trail  cannot  but  stop  to  admire 


CORDUROY    IIRII)(;K    across    TlIK    SKACWAY 

this  beautiful  sight.  From  this  bridge  the  trail  follows 
the  valley  of  the  Skagway,  the  ground  being  fiat  and 
boggy. 

The  main  summit  is  still  si.x  o:  seven  (estimated) 
miles  distant,  and,  as  it  is  raining,  I  put  in  at  the  tent  of 
three  hardy  fellows  whom  I  saw  the  first  day  at  Skag- 
way, after  feed  for  their  two  horses.  They  have  been 
two  weeks  on  the  trail.  They  tell  me  one  of  their  horses 
is  played  out  this  side  of  Porcupine. 

78 


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ed 


ire 


A    HORSE    OF    LITTLE    WORTH 

"  He  fell  over  a  bank  forty  or  fifty  feet,  and  was  on 
the  trail  next  day  all  right,  but  he  must  have  been  hurt 
inside.     He's  all  shot  to  hell  now." 

Two  of  them  go  back  to  where  they  left  the  horse, 
and  return  before  night.  They  have  a  little  fun  at  first 
by  saying  they  sold  the  horse  for  $125  to  a  man  that 
came  along  and  wanted  to  buy. 

"  Of  course  we  told  him  we  couldn't  recommend  the 
horse,  but  it  was  a  /iorsc  /" 

This  does  not  seem  unreasonable  to  us,  as  any  kind 
of  a  horse  brings  whatever  one  asks  for  it.  At  length 
one  of  them  says  :  "  No  ;  but  we  did  offer  it  to  a  man 
for  $10.  He  said  he  didn't  want  it.  Then  we  offered 
to  give  it  to  him.  He  said  he  didn't  want  it  even  at  that 
price.  Then  we  asked  him  for  a  gun  to  shoot  it  with, 
and  he  lent  us  a  revolver  and  we  shot  it." 

I  saw  one  of  these  men  afterwards.  He  told  me  they 
had  sold  their  other  horse,  as  they  found  it  was  cheaper 
to  pack  their  goods  on  their  own  backs  than  to  carry 
horse -feed  eight  or  nine  miles  from  Skagway.  A  few 
horses  are  passing  along  in  the  rain.  One  or  two  large 
oxen  go  by  loaded  with  three  hundred  and  more  pounds. 
It  is  astonishing  what  they  will  carry.  And  then,  when 
they  are  there,  they  can  be  killed  and  eaten.  Doubtless 
a  horse  can  be  eaten  also,  but  most  people  have  prefer- 
ences. 

Every  one  is  downhearted.  So  near  the  summit,  yet  so 
great  has  been  their  struggle  that  hardly  one  expects  to 
get  over  at  all,  but  is  seriously  discussing  the  best  place 
to  winter.  Said  one  :  "  I  mean  to  go  in  if  it  takes  all 
winter.  If  a  man  can  hunt  and  get  a  caribou,  he  need 
not  mind  it." 

None  of  them  feel  like  going  back,  but  most  of  them 
regret  having  started.     All  of  them  blame  the  misrepre- 

79 


r' 


m 


m\ 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 


sentation  about  the  trail,  and  there  are  many  anxious 
inquiries  about  how  it  is  at  Dyea. 

The  trail  along  the  bed  of  the  river  is  a  continuous 
mire,  knee-deep  to  men  and  horses.  Here  and  there  is  a 
spot  where  a  spring  branch  crosses  the  trail,  and  in  such 
spots,  which  are  twenty  to  thirty  feet  across,  there  is 
simply  no  bottom.  One  such  hole  is  beside  our  camp. 
Of  the  first  train  of  five  horses  and  three  men  that  I  saw 
go  by,  three  horses  and  two  men  got  in,  and  with  diffi- 
culty got  out.  After  that  every  horse  went  in  to  his  tail 
in  the  mud,  but,  after  desperate  struggles,  got  upon  solid 
ground.  There  are  worse  holes  than  this.  The  trail 
crosses  the  river  by  two  more  bridges,  and  then  con- 
tinues on  to  the  summit  by  a  road  equally  bad  but  no 
worse  than  what  we  have  come  over  Past  the  summit 
no  one  at  present  knows  anything  of  the  trail,  only  that 
a  few  persons  have  got  through  to  the  Lakes,  including 
two  or  three  women.  The  trail  is  all  but  impassable, 
yet  some  are  plugging  along.  These  men,  it  is  pre- 
dicted, will  lose  their  horses  in  three  or  four  days.  Some 
say  that  something  must  be  done ;  they  are  willing  to 
put  in  work,  but  are  not  willing  unless  others  help. 

There  is  no  common  interest.  The  selfish  are  crowd- 
ing on,  every  man  for  himself  Unless  something  is  done 
soon  the  trail  will  be  blocked,  and  then  no  one  will  get 
through. 

"  It's  no  use  going  around  these  mud-holes,"  says  one 
of  my  fellows.  "  The  swamp  is  all  alike.  The  only  thing 
to  do  is  to  make  corduroy  bridges  every  foot  of  the  way 
before  there  will  be  a  trail.  I  am  willing  to  start  to-mor- 
row and  bridge  the  holes  above  here." 

No  wonder  they  are  discouraged.  Rain,  rain,  all  the 
time — no  sunshine  up  in  these  mountains;  tent  pitched 
in  a  mud-hole,  bed  made  on  the  stumps  of  bushes,  blank- 

80 


lous 


> 


■y. 


n 


W 


,  1 


HORSES    LOST    ON    THE    TRAIL 


ets  and  everything  else  wet  and  muddy.  They  are  try- 
ing to  dry  out  a  hair-seal  cap  and  some  socks  before  a 
miserable  fire.  Even  the  wood  is  wet,  and  will  only 
smoke  and  smoulder. 

A  lit; list  25. 

T  remain  all  night  in  their  tent,  and  early  this  morn- 
ing set  out  to  come  back,'  having  seen  enough  of  the 
trail  to  know  what  the  rest  is  like.  I  should  like  to  go 
on  past  the  summit;  but  my  goods  are  at  Dyea — indeed, 
as  things  go  in  this  country,  I  cannot  be  sure  that  I 
have  any  goods  left  at  all. 

T  have  made  careful  inquiry  about  the  loss  of  horses 
on  the  trail.  The  number  at  the  present  time  is  prob- 
ably about  twenty  actually  killed,  with  considerably  more 
badly  hurt  or  temporarily  laid  up.  Each  day  now  about 
four  horses  are  killed.  The  number  is  bound  to  increase 
as  the  trail  grows  worse  (which  is  nearly  impossible) 
and  the  horses  grow  weak  under  the  strain  and  from  lack 
of  care.  When  the  sun  and  rains  of  summer  shall  have 
melted  the  snow  of  the  Chilkoots,  the  White  Pass  trail 
will  be  paved  with  the  bones  of  horses,  and  the  ravens 
and  fo.xes  will  have  feasted  as  never  until  the  white  man 
sought  a  new  way  across  the  great  mountain.  As  many 
horses  as  have  come  in  alive,  just  so  many  will  bleach 
their  bones  by  the  pine-trees  and  in  the  gulches — for 
none  will  go  out. 

A  little  while  ago  contracts  were  taken  by  the  packers 
at  20  cents,  then  25  cents,  a  pound.  Just  now  $650  was 
[)aid  for  a  thousand  pounds,  while  $1000  for  a  thousand 
pounds  was  offered  and  refused. 

Yesterday  a  horse  deliberately  walked  over  the  face  of 
Porcupine  Hill.     Said  one  of  the  men  who  saw  it: 

"  It  looked  to  me,  sir,  like  suicide.  I  believe  a  horse 
will  commit  suicide,  and  this  is  enough  to  make  them; 

83 


;y 


IH 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

they  don't  mind  the  hills  like  they  do  these  mud-holes." 
He  added,  "I  don't  know  but  that  I'd  rather  commit  sui- 
cide, too,  than  be  driven  by  soinC  of  the  men  on  this 
trail." 

This  is  what  one  hears  all  along  the  trail  :  '"  "We 
brought  a  boat  with  us,  but  we  shed  it  at  »Skagway.  It 
cost  us  $27  in  Seattle,  and  we  sold  it  for  $3.50,  and  were 
glad  to  get  rid  of  it." 

Yet  twt)  Peterboro  canoes  are  on  their  way  to  the  sum- 
mit.    1  saw  them  myself,  as  well  as  a  man  poking  along 


HOW    ONK.    OUTFIT    ATTI.NU'TEP   TO    PACK   TIMBER    FOR    A    «OAT   OVF.R 

TIIF,    TRAIL  .  ^ 

in  the  rain  with  a  load  of  boat  lumber  on  his  shoulder  so 
long  that  the  wonder  is  how  it  ever  got  around  the  turns 
on  Porcupine  Ridge. 

Word  is  brought  down  the  trail  that  one  man,  so  ^rtu- 
nate  as  to  get  over  and  have  his  boat  built  and  rerfdy 
loaded,  went  to  sleep,  and  in  the  morning  awoke  to  find 
the  boat  stolen  and  on  its  way  down  the  Yukon.  Surely 
that  is  hardship,  yet  only  one  out  of  many.  The  history 
of  this  trail  is  yet  to  be  written,  and  will  only  be  heard 
by  the  firesides  of  old  men. 

On  the  way  back,  squads  of  men  have  ceased  packing 
and  are  mending  the  road.    There  is  some  talk  of  closing 

84 


\ 


lu- 
lu's 

It 
fcre 


PUTTIN(i    TRAIL    IN    ORDER 

the  trail.  Farther  on  the  rumor  is  verified,  (iroups  of 
men  in  charge  of  foremen  are  chopping  down  trees  and 
building  corduroy  roads  over  the  worst  mud -holes  and 
over  the  most  dangerous  portions  of  the  rocks.  The 
manner  of  building  is  to  take  two  string-pieces,  lay  them 
side  by  side  four  feet  apart,  then  lay  half-round  logs 
across,  and  hold  these  down  by  two  more  string -pieces 
pegged  down  solidly.  They  have  piled  wood  over  the 
bodies  of  dead  horses  that  have  become  (offensive,  and 
these  are  being  consumed  by  fire. 

Between  Porcupine  and  the  "Foot  of  the  Hill"  the 
whole  road  is  being  systematically  and  substantially  put 
in  order.  Not  a  horse  nor  a  man  with  a  pack  is  allowed  to 
pass  in  from  the  "Foot  of  the  Hill."  A  rope  is  stretched 
.across  the  trail,  and  several  committeemen  of  the  miners 
stand  guard  and  rigidly  enforce  the  rule  that  no  man 
with  a  pack  must  pass  over  for  the  space  of  three  days  ; 
by  that  time,  it  is*,  believed,  the  trail  will  be  fixed.  One 
man  who'  attempted  to  pass  got  roughly  handled.  He 
was  threatened  with  the  black  spot  and  all  the  Irish 
curses  of  the  boss  of  the  gang.  His  excuse  was  that  he 
had  a  tent  up  the  road  and  was  merely  getting  back 
home.  There  was  a  miners'  meeting  last  night,  at  which 
the  trail  was  declared  closed.  The  town  at  the  "Foot  of 
the  Hill"  was  at  the  same  time  officially  named  "Camp 
Edgemont." 

Two  men  came  through  from  Dawson  a  few  days  ago. 
No  one  knew  it  until  after  they  had  left  for  Seattle  ex- 
cept the  doctor  who  keeps  the  little  apothecary-shop  at 
Skagway.  He  told  me  about  it  while  measuring  out  some 
quinine  pills  :  ^ 

"I  saw  the  two  boys  come  by,  and  I  recognized  them 
as  from  my  town,  and  called  them  by  name,  and  asked 
them  if  they  had  come  down  the  trail.     They  said  they 

.        -85  V  -- 

a     .   '■       •  ^         ■ 


M 


\ 


fU'j 


' 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

had,  and  I  asked  them  in.  They  c.ime  in,  and  one  of 
them  helped  the  other  off  with  his  pack.  I  noticed  it 
seemed  very  heavy,  so  I  came  right  out  phimp  :  '  How 
much  dust  have  you  got?'  'Dust?'  they  said;  'that's 
our  grub.'  *Oh,  now,'  said  I,  'you  might  as  well  tell  me 
how  much  you've  got !'  Well,  they  made  me  promise 
not  to  tell  they  were  there  until  after  they  had  got  away. 
They  opened  up,  and  showed  me  eighty-five  pounds  of 
dust ;  the  biggest  lump  was  as  big  as  my  thumb.  They 
came  up  by  poling-boat  to  the  White  Horse  Rapids,  and 
afoot  the  rest  of  the  way.  They  told  me  that  they  threw 
the  sack  of  dust  down  fifty  times,  not  caring  if  they 
ever  picked  it  up  again." 

Fifty  men  might  come  through  and  no  one  would  know 
it.  No  one  knows  his  neighbor,  nor  seems  to  care. 
Speak  to  a  man  once  or  twice,  and  every  one  calls  him 
your  "  pardner,"  The  better  class  of  men  resent  this  ex- 
pression ;  it  is  decidedly  too  familiar  and  vulgar — about 
as  if  a  stranger  should  address  you  as  "  Shorty."  It  is 
the  regular  thing  here,  however,  and  is  no  oftener  a  lie 
than  the  expression  "  my  friend." 


of 

it 

>w 

It's 

Jiie 

lise 

of 


CHAPTER  V 

Departure  for  Dyea— Outfit  Destroyed  by  Tide— Tlie  Chilkoot,  or  Dyea, 
Trail— Dyea  River  — Cliilkoot  Indians  — Trail  Open,  but  Quitits 
Stranded  fur  Lacii  of  Money — The  Leadbeiter  Outfit — Packers  Seize 
Horses 

Aits^ust  2(>. 

>HE  storm  had  abated,  the  tent 
was  gone,  and  there  was  noth- 
ing  to   do   but   follow   Jim    to 
Dyea,  so   I   bargained   with   a 
Siwash  from  Wrangel,  with  a  thirty- 
five-foot  single-stick  dugout  canoe, 
to  be  taken  over. 

At  Dyea  the  tents  and  goods  were 
gone.  Icouldseenothingof  my  own. 
I  supposed  they  had  been  carried  off  by  the  contractor. 
Among  the  first  I  stumbled  across  was  Jim,  who,  to  my 
astonishment,  had  just  arrived  from  Skagvvay,  the  sea 
having  continued  so  rough  that  no  one  would  venture 
to  bring  him  over.  The  tents  were  a  quarter  of  a  mile 
farther  on.  When  I  got  there  I  found  friends,  and  to 
my  horror  learned  that  the  storm  had  driven  an  unusu- 
ally high  tide  in  upon  the  beach,  flooding  all  the  goods 
and  tents.  Wagons  had  gone  to  the  rescue  and  saved 
the  most,  but  some  had  floated  off  and  had  not  yet  been 
recovered.  A  stranger,  with  a  wagon,  had  rescued  my 
outfit.  Looking  about,  I  soon  recognized  my  black  wa- 
ter-proof sacks.  The  stranger  proved  to  be  Monsieur 
I'Abbe  ;  he  had  found  the  goods  under  a  foot  of  water, 

87 


I, 


Till-:    KLONDIKI':    STAMPED!': 


J  V 

/ 


[■ 


and  paid  a  teamster  $12  to  land  them  in  a  i)lace  of  safety. 
I  did  not  dare  to  think  of  the  condition  they  were  in. 

Where  was  Leadbetter  ?  Xo  one  knew.  His  wai^oner 
was  there.  WouUl  he  take  my  jj^oods  ii>)W  ?  He  had  no 
time  to-day.  There  was  no  time  to  discuss  the  matter 
with  the  unwillinj.|;  teamster.  Jim,  Bur^huidt.  and  the 
one-eyed  Dutchman,  who  had  stuck  to  the  j)arty,  and 
myself  hired  two  Indians  with  a  canoe,  and,  jjuttinjj;  part 
of  our  outfit  in,  and  with  two  more  Indians  to  help,  we 
towed  the  canoe  up  the  Dyea  River  for  two  miles,  until 
we  reached  the  ferry,  w  here  the  trail  crosses  the  river, 
and  there  we  found  Leadbetter's  tent  and  the  tents  and 
goods  of  a  number  of  parties  whom  he  had  contracted 
to  take  over. 

We  pitched  our  tent  among  the  others  in  a  grove  of 
cottonwoods,  and  in  the  morning  we  brought  up  the  rest 
of  the  goods,  weighing  fortv-five  hundred  pounds.  The 
cost  for  my  share  alone  v.  as  $16.  Jim  got  the  stove  up 
inside  the  tent.  Upon  opening  the  clothing- bags,  the 
salt-water  had  soaked  through  the  carelessly  tied  ends, 
as  they  lay  submerged,  and  every  article  in  three  sacks 
— leather  mittens,  moccasins,  blankets,  and  furs  —  were 
wringing  wet ;  boxes  had  come  apart,  labels  oft"  bottles. 
I  was  still  sure  of  the  photographic  outfit,  which  had 
been  ordered  from  the  Eastman  Company's  factory  in 
"hermetically"  sealed  tins.  Imagine,  then,  my  feelings 
as  I  unwrapped  one  after  another  of  the  dripping  tins, 
and  found  not  one  hermetically  sealed,  but  with  a  com- 
mon India-rubber  band  loosely  placed  around  the  joint. 
When  opened,  water  poured  out.  The  cut  films,  being 
in  pasteboard  boxes,  were,  of  course,  also  destroyed — in 
all,  two  hundred  and  fifty  plates — my  entire  stock,  which 
could  not  be  replaced  nearer  than  Seattle,  if  there  ;  and 
before  they  could  arrive  it  would  be  too  late  to  reach 

88 


\'. 


LOSS    OF    OUT  1'  1  T 

Dawson,  and  I  i-onlcl  not  jj;o  withuul  ihcni.  Wc  closed 
the  tent  tight,  rigged  up  lines,  wrung  tlie  water  out  of 
the  fabrics,  and  at  tlie  end  of  two  da':",  during  |)art  of 
which  time  the  sun  lielped  us,  we  got  •  'rything  (h'y. 
Only  a  sack  or  two  of  flour  was  damaged  —  is  flour,  unless 
it  lies  a  great  while  in  water,  is  not  ..  Lurat< d  mor»  ihan 
I  o'.arter  to  half  an  inch — and  sotne  dried  fruii. 

The  utter  hopelessnej  i  of  that  night  will  never  be  for- 
gotten.   The  blame  was  first  my  own  in  not  having  seen 


THK    SKTTI.KMI-.NT    A  l    UVEA 


that  all  my  sacks  were  wra{)ped  and  rewrapped  at  the 
ends.  But  that  did  not  -elieve  the  contractor  of  re- 
sponsibility, for  if  he  had  moved  the  goods  when  told 
the  accident  never  would  have  happened.  The  teamster, 
being  in  arrears  for  his  pay,  was  on  the  verge  of  mutiny, 
and  i-onsequently  in  no  hurry  to  remove  them. 

Leadbetter  was  up  the  trail,  with  a  large  outfit  of 
horses  and  burros.  Pie  had  made  various  contracts  with 
parties  from  San  Francisco  to  put  them  over  at  a  lower 

Sy 


m 


fei.a 


ir 


I 

■  m 

it 

■if 

■'  'y 
■I  T'  ■ 


. 


4 


Si 

ji' 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

rate  than  that  which  the  Indians  had  hitherto  charged, 
a  quite  reasonable  undertaking.  From  some  he  had 
taken  cash  ;  from  others,  like  myself,  horses,  and  he  had 
agreed  to  pay  the  wages  of  his  packmen  by  transporting 
a  certain  quantity  of  supplies  for  them.  The  outfits 
*  are  moving  along  slowly,  but  contracts  have  run  over 
the  time,  and  there  are  murmurs  of  discontent. 

I  went  at  once  to  Skagway.  Learning  that  Wells, 
Fargo  &  Company  might  establish  a  parcel  express  ser- 
vice to  Dawson  during  the  winter,  by  arrangement  with 
the  carriers  of  the  United  States  mails,  I  wrote  a  tele- 
gram to  be  forwarded  from  Seattle  for  five  rolls  of  film, 
in  soldered  tins,  and  to  other  parties  for  films  for  the 
plate-holders,  the  agent  about-to-be,  Mr.  Batten,  prom- 
ising to  do  all  that  was  possible  to  get  the  stuff  through 
to  Dawson. 

The  steamer  Danube,  from  Victoria,  was  unloading, 
and  I  went  aboard  to«  post  letters.  Mr.  Jones,  deputy 
United  States  customs  officer,  was  in  the  captain's  cabin 
collecting  duty  on  the  horses  that  were  aboard,  an  inter- 
esting development,  considering  that  the  duty  was  not 
payable  until  they  were  landed  on  American  soil. 

In  a  depressed  state  of  mind,  I  returned  to  Dyea,  al- 
though having  still  the  i^  x  2-inch  Kodak  and  some  rolls 
for  the  same. 

Two  months  ago  there  was  but  one  trail  commonly 
known  across  the  Chilkoot  Mountains  to  the  head-waters 
of  the  Yukon.  That  trail  was  known  as  the  Chilkoot 
Pass  route.  The  new  trail,  first  called  the  White  Pass 
trail,  is  now  spoken  of  as  the  Skagway  trail,  while  the 
old  Chilkoot  trail  is  called  the  Dyea  trail.  That  the 
advertising  of  the  Skagway  trail  as  the  better  route  was 
premature  no  one  pretends  to  dispute  —nay,  it  is  only  i:i 
terms  of  unqualified  condemnation  that  it  may  be  men- 

90 


;s 
;r 


THE    DYEA    RIVER 

tioned.  Those  who  cut  that  trail  may  have  honestly  be- 
lieved it  to  be  better,  but  the  effect  of  rains  and  of  thou- 
sands of  men  and  horses  tramping  to  and  fro  was  not 
foreseen.  Some  saw  the  trap  in  time  and  pulled  out, 
and  are  now  well  over  the  Dyea  trail.  In  winter  there 
has  been  but  one  plan  of  work  heretofore  followed  : 
Landing  at  Dyea  by  small  steamer  from  Juneau,  goods 
to  the  extent  of  from  four  hundred  to  five  hundred 
pounds  are  placed  upon  the  seven-foot  sled  previously 
described  and  hauled  up  the  Dyea  River  a  distance  of 
about  nineteen  miles  to  the  foot  of  the  summit ;  thence 
it  is  packed,  or  else  hoisted  by  a  long  cable,  over  the 
forty -degree  incline  to  the  summit ;  thence  on  sleds 
again  to  Lake  Lindeman,  a  distance  in  all  of  twenty- 
seven  miles,  where  the  miners  wait  for  the  opening  of 
the  river,  or  else  sled  down  the  Lakes  as  far  as  they 
choose. 

At  this  time  of  year  it  is,  of  course,  wholly  different. 
Indians  have  been  taking  packs  of  from  one  hundred  to 
two  hundred  pounds  on  their  backs,  either  directly  at 
Dyea,  or  in  canoes  to  what  is  termed  the  head  of  canoe 
navigation,  some  six  and  a  half  miles  from  Dyea,  and 
thence  on  their  backs,  making  the  first  stop  at  Sheep 
Camp,  three  or  four  miles  this  side  of  the  summit,  and 
reaching  Lindeman  the  following  day,  at  a  charge  of  14 
cents  per  pound.  This  year,  horses  and  wagons  have  been 
put  on  for  part  of  the  way,  and  white  men  have  come 
in  to  share  the  profitable  rates  of  packing,  which  have 
steadily  gone  up  until  they  are  now  40  cents  per  pound 
to  Lake  Lindeman. 

The  Dyea  River  is,  as  I  have  mentioned  before,  a 
stream  of  nearly  twice  the  volume  of  the  Skagway.  As 
far  as  the  canyon,  eleven  miles  from  the  mouth,  its 
course   is   through   a  level   valley  of  sand,  gravel,  and 

91 


!( ;  ; 


I  ; 


II 


i\U 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 


rii 


m 


I 


I 


i 


bowlders,  with  groves  and  patches  of  cottonwoods  and 
spruce  and  birch,  while  along  its  banks  are  thickets  ot 
alder  and  a  species  of  willow  resembling  the  red  willow 
of  the  East.  Its  swift,  milky,  ice  -  cold  waters  follow 
mainly  the  west  side  of  the  valley,  but  at  various  points 
little  branches  roam  away  from  the  main  stream.  The 
river  is  filled  at  this  season  with  salmon,  spawning,  and 
with  large,  fine  trout.  The  woods,  to  the  unobservant, 
seem  devoid  of  life  ;  but  though  there  is  no  song  of 
bird,  still  if  one  listens  he  will  hear  the  low  chirp  of 
sparrows,  while  the  hoarse  croak  of  the  raven  is  borne 
to  the  ear  as  it  flaps  lazily  overhead.  There  are  also  red 
squirrels,  and  if  those  who  have  hunted  in  this  region 
can  be  relied  upon,  the  country  abounds  in  large  game 
as  well  as  small — grizzly  bears  on  the  mountain-sides, 
mountain-goats  (miscalled  "sheep"  here)  on  the  sum- 
mits that  overlook  the  valley,  and  numerous  small  fur- 
bearing  animals. 

Dyea  is  a  comparatively  old  settlement,  its  principal, 
it  may  be  said  only,  house,  the  store,  dwelling,  and  post- 
officQ  occupied  by  the  firm  of  Messrs.  Healy  &  Wilson, 
having  been  established  as  an  Indian  trading-post  thir- 
teen years  ago.  One  of  the  partners.  Captain  John  J. 
Healy,  six  years  ago  organized  in  Chicago  the  North 
American  Transportation  and  Trading  Company,  and  is 
now  at  Dawson  as  its  general  manager.  Dyea  ir.  chieliy 
an  Indian  settlement.  To  Ihe  northward  of  the  i)ost- 
offtce  and  close  by  the  bank  of  the  river  is  the  village, 
composed  of  small,  dirty  tents  and  little  wooden  cab- 
ins crowded  close  together.  There  are  no  totem-poles 
nor  the  large  houses  of  more  southern  Alaska.  But  for 
the  few  permanent  cabins,  it  would  seem  to  be  what  it 
largely  is,  a  small  settlement  where  Indians  congregate 
from  various  quarters,  the  Chilkats    from  the  westerly 

92 


THE    CHILKOOT    INDIANS 

arm  of  Lynn  Canal,  the  Stikeen  Indians  from  clown 
Fort  Wrangel,  and  the  Chilkoots,  a  branch  of  the  Chil- 
kats,  who  belong  here.  They  are  Tlingits,  and  the  men 
are  short,  heavy  set,  powerfully  built,  broad  and  thick 
of  chest,  large  of  head,  with  almost  Mongolian  eyes  and 
massive  jaws.  Nearly  all  have  stringy  black  mustaches 
that  droop  at  the  ends,  and  some  have  scant   beards 


U 


CANOK    NAVIGATION 


Their  color  is  a  light  brown.  The  women  are  hardly 
any  of  them  good-looking,  and  have  a  habit  oi  painting 
their  faces  a  jet  black  or  chocolate  brown,  and  I  have 
seen  little  girls  who  thus  imitated  their  elder  sisters  and 
mothers.  The  face  is  rubl^ed  with  balsam,  then  with 
burned  punk,  and  this  is  rubbed  in  with  grease.  They  do 
this,  I  am  told,  for  the  same  reason  that  their  white  sis- 
ters use  paint  and  [)owder.  They  leave  enough  of  their 
faces  untouched  about  the  chin,  mouth,  and  eyes  to  give 

93 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

them  a  hideous,  repulsive  expression.  In  the  spring  of 
the  year  both  men  and  women  blacken  themselves  thus 
to  protect  their  eyes  from  the  glare  of  the  sun  upon  the 
snow.  White  men  used  to  do  the  same  thing  here,  but 
snow-goggles  are  now  used  instead. 

The  Indian  pack-straps  consist  of  two  bands  of  cotton 
cloth. lined  with  blanket,  two  inches  wide  and  twenty 
inches  long,  having  a  loop  at  each  end.  These  loops  are 
fastened  to  the  top  and  bottom  of  the  load  by  means 
of  a  small  rope,  and  pass  around  the  shoulders  in  front. 
A  third — "head-strap" — passes  over  the  forehead,  the 
ends  being  fastened  to  the  load  behind.  In  this  way 
an  Indian  walks  off  with  twice  the  load  a  white  man 
will  undertake  to  carry,  and  even  young  boys  and 
women  take  their  seventy-five  pounds  and  accompany 
the  men.  , 

Most  arrangements  for  packing  are  made  with  Isaac, 
"  Chief  of  the  Chilkoots,"  as  the  sign  reads  above  his 
cabin.  Formerly  the  Chilkoots  monopolized  the  pack- 
ing, not  allowing  other  Indians  to  enjoy  the  profits,  and 
seriously  objecting  even  to  white  men  packing  their 
own  outfits  over  ;  but  now  this  monopoly  is  completely 
broken. 

The  Indian  men's  dress  is  varied  and  picturesque.  Some 
wear  the  gayly  colored  Mackinaw  jacket ;  others  a  blue 
denim  garment,  half  shirt,  half  coat ;  still  others  a  loose 
coat  of  blanket,  the  sleeves  or  a  patch  across  the  back 
being  made  of  the  striped  ends ;  and,  as  the  blankets  used 
by  these  Indians  are  of  the  most  brilliantly  assorted  col- 
ors, the  color  effects  are  distinctly  striking.  For  head- 
gear they  wear  common  little  felt  hats  or  bright  wool 
toques  or  a  colored  kerchief.  All  possess  rubber  hip- 
boots,  but  when  packing  they  wear  only  moccasins  out- 
side of  "  Siwash  "  or  blanket  socks,  and   sometimes  an 

94 


CHARACTERISTICS    OF    THE    INDIANS 


oversock  to  the  knee.  Indian  fashion,  dogs  and  children, 
men  and  women,  crowd  into  their  dirty  abodes,  which 
smell  of  spoiled  fish.  The  dogs  are  not  so  numerous  as 
I  expected,  nor  yet  so  quarrelsome  and  noisy.  The  Ind- 
ians train  them  for  sledge-drawing  in  winter  and  pack- 
ing on  their  backs  in  summer,  and  it  is  not  unusual  to 
see  an  Indian  with  one  or  two  medium-sized  dogs  trot- 
ting beside  him,  with  a  little  pack  on  each  side,  sagging 
nearly  to  the  ground,  containing  his  luncheon. 

When  an  Indian  is  packing  he  carries  his  single  small 
blanket  tied  upon  his  back  under  the  pack,  thereby  making 
a  cushion  for  the  pack.  A  stout  stick  to  balance  with  and 
to  assist  in  climbing  completes  his  outfit.  Twenty  or 
thirty  Indians  will  take  up  packs  and  put  a  whole  outfit 
over  in  two  days.  They  are  not  trustworthy,  and  are 
wholly  unscrupulous.  They  do  nothing  even  for  each 
other  without  a  price,  and  I  have  carefully  noticed  that 
they  make' no  distinction  between  themselves  and  whites 
even  for  the  same  service.  If  one  engages  them  at  a 
certain  price  and  some  one  offers  them  more,  they  lay 
down  their  packs  and  take  up  the  new  ones ;  or  if  on  the 
trail  they  hear  of  a  rise  in  the  scale,  they  stop  and  strike 
for  the  higher  wages.    Some  of  them  speak  good  English. 

Indians  from  Sitka  say  these  fellows  are  wild  Ind- 
ians, and  look  upon  their  ignorance  of  letters  with  some 
contempt ;  but,  if  ignorant  of  letters,  they  are  shrewd, 
hard  traders,  who  are  making  money  fast  and  saving  it. 
They  have  a  strong  predilection  for  gold,  but  at  the  same 
time,  as  our  silver  friends  will  be  pleased  to  know,  silver 
is  in  no  less  favor  with  them.  In  fact,  it  seems  to  be 
hard  money  they  want.  I  knew  an  Indian  to  declare 
solemnly  he  could  not  change  a  five-dollar  bill,  showing 
the  only  two  silver  dollars  he  had ;  but,  when  a  gold  five 
was  offered  instead,  he  fished  a  whole  handful  of  silver 

95 


ill 


t'  : 


I 


I         :. 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

out  of  his  pocket,  which  also  proves  what  barefaced  liars 
they  are.  They  are  taking  all  the  small  change  out  of 
circulation.  They  come  to  the  traders  several  times  a 
day,  make  a  trilling  purchase  to  get  change,  and  then 
store  it  away.  The  small -change  ])roblem  is  indeed  a 
serious  one.  There  is  not  enough  small  currency  to  do 
business  with.  The  gamblers  and  the  Indians  are  get- 
ting it  all. 


APrROACniNC.    TIIK   CANYON 


From  the  Indian  village  the  road  follows  the  western 
bank  of  the  river  to  the  ferry,  where  horses  can  ford  in 
the  early  morning.  Thence  the  road  continues,  crossing 
and  recrossing  small  branches  of  the  Dyea  eight  or  nine 
times,  to  Finnegan's  Point  (a  distance  of  about  five  miles 
from  Dyea).  The  foot-trail  makes  but  two  fords  in  that 
distance.  From  Finnegan's  Point  is  a  horse-trail  one 
mile  to  the  head  of  canoe  navigation,  and  thence,  over 

96 


ON  THE  TRAIL  TO  SHEEP  CAMP 


a  level  waste  of  sand  and  loose  bowlders,  to  the  mouth 
of  the  canyon.  From  there  the  winter  route  follows  the 
bed  of  the  river  for  two  and  a  half  or  three  miles,  be- 
tween steep  forest-clad  banks.  The  summer  trail  makes 
boldly  up  the  steep  sides  of  the  hill,  and,  after  making 
several  very  steep  but  short  ascents  and  descents,  reach- 
ing in  one  place  a  height  of  two  or  three  hundred  feet 
above  the  bed  of  the  river,  it  drops  to  the  level  again 
at  the  head  of  the  canyon,  and  crosses  the  river  on  a 
bridge,  the  work  of  private  parties,  who  charge  a  toll 
of  fifty  cents  on  every  loaded  horse.  The  trail  thence 
follows  the  bed  of  the  stream,  which  is  wide  and  grav- 
elly, fording  again  and  again,  or  crossing  on  logs,  to 
Sheep  Camp,  fourteen  miles  from  Dyea.  The  only  bad 
part  of  the  road  is  in  the  canyon,  but  for  the  most  part 
this  has  been  well  corduroyed,  so  that,  no  matter  how 
much  it  rains,  there  is  solid  footing.  Untrained  horses 
fail  here  too,  but  there  is  a  trail ;  at  Skagway  there  is 
none,  unless  mud  and  rocks  suffice  to  make  a  trail. 
Healy  &  Wilson's  pack-train  of  ten  or  twelve  horses,  in 
charge  of  two  men  on  horseback,  runs  daily  from  Dyea 
to  Sheep  Camp,  carrying  two  hundred  pounds  per  horse, 
returning  the  same  night,  with  hardly  ever  an  accident. 
Both  horses  and  men  know  their  business.  A  good 
many  of  the  miners  push  their  little  hand-carts  to  the 
end  of  the  wagon-road,  and  then  pack  on  their  backs  or 
by  horse  ;  while  others  build  large  flat-bottomed  scows 
or  skiffs,  into  which  they  pile  all  their  goods,  and  tow 
them,  with  much  labor,  to  the  head  of  canoe  navigation. 


Ai'  THK  FiCRRY,  August  2g. 
Still  drying  out  clothes  and  blankets.     We  have  found 
one  of  our  horses  here,  sick  from  an  injury  received  on 
the  steamer.     He  falls  down  with  no  load  and  acts  as  if 
G  97 


\^h 


n 


■Vx 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

famished.  It  is  Jim's  own  horse.  Leadbetter  has  arrived 
and  promises  to  move  us  at  once  by  wagon  to  Finnegan's 
Point.  Our  horses  are  working  on  the  pack-train  from 
Finnegan's  Point  to  Sheep  Camp. 

Jim  and  Burghardt  are  chafing  at  the  delays.  So 
they  propose  '.o  do  their  own  packing,  if  I  replace  the 
old  "  skate  "  with  a  sound  horse — a  proposition  to  which 
1  readily  assent  by  giving  him  "Nelly,"  leaving  me  now 
with  five  sound  horses  and  1400  pounds  of  stuff,  not  in- 
cluding thp  boat  lumber.  Jim  and  the  boy  go  to  Finne- 
gan's and  pick  out  their  horses  and  start  packing. 

The  Dutchman  is  to  give  his  horse  to  an  Indian,  for 
packing  200  pounds  to  the  summit,  and  he  has  gone 
with  the  Indian,  his  horse,  and  a  pack  on  his  own 
back. 

It  is  impossible  to  give  one  an  idea  of  the  slowness 
with  which  things  are  moving.  It  takes  a  day  to  go  four 
or  five  miles  and  back  ;  it  takes  a  dollar  to  do  what  ten 
cents  would  do  at  home.  The  blacksmith  is  either  at 
Skagway,  or  is  drunk,  or  has  left  his  tools  behind.  That 
has  been  the  main  trouble  with  Leadbetter — half  his 
horses  are  laid  off  without  shoes.  A  horse  loses  one  or 
more  shoes  about  every  trip.  The  same  story  is  told  by 
all.  They  have  arrived  here  with  outfits  and  means  of 
transportation ;  they  have  thought  their  expenses  ended, 
but  they  have  only  just  begun.  Where  a  party  has  cal- 
culated on  getting  over  in  days,  it  is  taking  weeks.  Yet 
how  much  better  than  at  Skagway  !  Here  people  are 
moving  ;  there  the  trail  is  choked,  and  no  one  is  getting 

through. 

Aui^nst  30. 

Six  burros  belonging  to  the  outfit  take  800  pounds  to 
Finnegan's  Point,  and  I  pay  a  wagoner  to  haul  the  rest 
to  that  point. 


AT    FINNEGANS    POlNt 


11 


Finneoan's  Point,  August  31. 

Twenty  tents,  including  a  blacksmith-shop,  a  saloon, 
and  a  restaurant.  A  tent,  a  board  counter  a  foot  wide 
and  six  feet  long,  a  tall  man  in  a  Mackinaw  coat,  and  a 
bottle  of  whiskey  is  called  a  saloon  here.  At  the  hotel 
a  full  meal  of  beans  and  bacon,  bread  and  butter,  dried 
peaches  and  coffee  is  served  for  6  bits,  or  75  cents.  It  is 
run  by  two  young  women  from  Seattle.  One  of  them  is 
preparing  to  start  for  Sheep  Camp  with  a  two-hundred- 
pound  cooking-range.  The  Indians  bring  in  salmon  and 
trout,  and  sell  them  for  2  bits,  or  25  cents,  each.  The 
salmon  weigh  from  ten  to  twelve  pounds ;  the  trout,  two 
or  three  pounds. 

The  Indians  fish  in  a  peculiar  manner.  They  go  two 
together  in  a  smallish  canoe,  one  with  a  paddle,  while 
the  other  sits  facing  him  in  the  bow,  armed  with  an  iron 
gaff;  and,  as  the  canoe  is  slowly  worked  along  the  pools, 
the  gaffer  feels  up  and  down  with  his  gaff  until  he 
strikes  a  fish,  when,  with  a  flop,  it  is  landed  in  the  bot- 
tom of  the  canoe.  One  cannot  see  a  foot  in  the  milky, 
glacial  water,  so  that  spearing  is  out  of  the  question. 
vSometimes  they  surprise  the  fish  in  the  shallow  places. 
I  shot  a  two-and-a-half-pounder  at  a  ford,  grazing  and 
stunning  it  with  a  revolver  -  shot.  The  Indians  do  not 
use  a  hook  and  line.  There  could  be  no  finer  place  to 
fish  for  trout  than  along  this  Dyea  River ;  there  are 
deep,  narrow  pools  against  the  sides  of  the  steep  moun- 
tains, while  on  the  other  side  it  is  open,  flat,  and  grav- 
elly, free  from  bushes.  None,  however,  have  time  to 
try,  the  ever-present  dread  that  we  may  never  get  over 
weighs  on  our  minds. 

The  slowness  of  the  pack  -  trains  is  disheartening  ; 
horses  laid  off  from  loss  of  shoes,  no  shoes,  not  even 
nails  to  put  them  on ;  many  are  sore,  and  the  poor  ones 

99 


;M, 


|!i 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

are  playing  out.  The  men  do  not  know  how  to  pack. 
A  Montana  man  says:  "Some  of  these  people  think  that 
so  long  as  it  is  a  horse,  anything  is  all  right.  If  it' was 
a  piece  of  machinery  they  would  have  to  take  care  of 
it,  but  they  think  a  horse  can  stand  anything."  The 
packing  rate  to  Sheep  Camp  is  12  cents  per  pound.  I  ^ 
start  the  boat  lumber  for  Sheep  Camp  by  two  men,  who 
carry  the  boards  each  side  of  them  in  a  sort  of  rope  har- 
ness. The  lumber  weighs  165  pounds,  and  I  pay  them 
$25.  My  stuff  went  up  to-day  on  the  backs  of  nine 
horses,  five  of  which  are  my  own.  The  packers  on  their 
return  to-night  claim  they  were  threatened  with  revolv- 
ers up  the  line  by  men  the  time  of  whose  contracts  had 
expired ;  that  the  pack-train  could  only  take  up  one  more 
load  before  moving  the  others  on. 

September  2. 

Packers  have  held  what  they  called  a  "committee" 
meeting,  and  the  "committee"  announce  that  they  are 
working  for  wages,  and  that  their  only  chance  to  get  their 
own  stuff  through  is  to  push  it  through  on  every  avail- 
able horse  to-morrow,  disregarding  all  other  claims  to 
precedence.  Everybody  is  excited,  and  a  panic  has  seized 
those  who  are  being  put  over  by  the  train.  I  try  to 
stand  them  off,  as  far  as  my  horses  go,  but  the  whole 
train  goes  off  for  Sheep  Camp  with  a  ton  of  stuff  belong- 
ing to  the  packers.  Leadbetter  is  up  the  line  with  three 
or  four  horses,  working  goods  from  Sheep  Camp  to  The 
Scales,  gradually  and  very  slowly  carrying  out  the  con- 
tract. But  contracts  are  contracts,  and  angry  men  point 
to  dates  on  pieces  of  paper  to  prove  that  they  are  not  at 
The  Scales  or  at  Lindeman  within  the  time  specified,  and 
they  are  demanding  the  return  of  their  horses.  Every 
man  is  for  himself  and  fears  to  be  left. 

lOO 


RETURN  TO  SKAGWAY  FOR  ADVICE 

September  3. 
I  take  passage  with  a  party  of  Indians  for  Skagway, 
to  consult  the  United  States  Commissioner  and  obtain 
papers  to  be  served  in  case  parties  continue  to  hold  and 
use  the  train.  To-night  the  packers  hold  conclave  before 
a  big  log-fire.  They  are  sobered  a  little  by  this  time,  and 
ask  me  to  take  charge  of  the  whole  train  and  to  run  it  in 
the  interest  of  the  others,  looking  after  the  financial  end. 
There  is  Glass,  a  civil  engineer  of  San  Francisco ;  and 
Simpson,  tall,  thin,  with  a  scraggy  black  beard  and  most 
disreputable  arctic  overshoes.  He  is  a  butcher  from 
Oakland,  and  has  made  a  wager  to  go  in  and  come  out 
on  so  much  money,  and  has  600  newspapers  to  sell  there. 
He  is  a  picture  of  misery.  He  comes  in  from  the  trail 
soaking  wet  from  rain  and  mud,  but  he  is  the  most 
cheerful  man  of  the  lot,  and  one  of  the  hardest  work- 
ers. (Simpson  privately  proposed  that  I  leave  my  lumber 
and  take  his  canvas  canoe  and  himself  on  with  his  pa- 
pers. Impossible.)  There  is  Fitzpatrick,  jovial  and  care- 
less, the  stowaway  who  was  captured  aboard  the  Excelsior 
as  she  was  leaving  San  Francisco  for  St.  Michael,  and 
who  to-night,  in  the  ruddy  glare  of  the  fire,  and  amid 
the  steam  of  wet  clothes,  with  his  thumbs  in  the  belt  of 
his  trousers,  tells  over,  with  rich  expletives,  the  story  of 
his  capture,  and  how  he  had  begged  and  pleaded,  even 
offered  money,  for  passage,  but  in  vain.  And  there  are 
half  a  dozen  others  from  all  parts  of  the  country,  of 
different  professions,  but  drawn  together  by  common 
interest,  and  now  trying  to  work  together.  I  make  them 
a  counter-proposition — to  take  my  horses  at  a  low  figure 
and  let  me  do  my  own  packing  on  from  Sheep  Camp. 
The  horses  are  now  conceded  to  be  mine. 

September  4. 

This  morning  the  packers  were  leaving  my  horses ; 

lOI 


l.«     :! 


i  \ 

m 


•'1 

1 1  \ 


V  ii 


li'^i 


a 

:l 

1 

;  1 

1 

1  n  ^ 

1  '^ 

Mm  ^ 
l|||r 

in ' 

111'^ 

If  1 

1 

nfl  ^ 

THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

but,  rather  than  keep  them  idle,  I  let  Simpson  take 
them  out,  packing  one -half  for  himself  and  the  other 
half  for  me  at  the  i)revailing  rates.  I  load  and  helf) 
pack  280  pounds  for  King's  party  from  San  Francis- 
co, and  at  the  same  time  accept  an  invitation  to  eat 
Christmas  dinner  with  them  at  Stewart  River.  Turkey, 
cranberry  sauce,  plum  -  pudding,  and  champagne  are 
promised — a  change  from  pork  and  beans.  During  the 
rest  of  this  morning  I  had  to  throw  the  diamond  hitch 
over  the  loads  of  so-called  experienced  packers,  concoct- 
ing a  long  story  about  where  I  had  learned  it. 

Attended  court  in  the  afternoon,  according  to  agree- 
ment, at  Richard's  Landing.  There  were  several  cases 
on — one  a  quarrel  about  some  mules.  The  court-house 
was  a  ten-by-twelve  tent.  The  commissioner  or  judge  sat 
on  a  goods-box  with  a  larger  goods-box  in  front,  and  the 
kvvyers  and  defendants  and  plaintiffs,  numbering  about 
a  dozen  persons,  sat  on  other  boxes  and  discussed  the 
situation  informally.  After  talking  awhile  inside,  all 
parties  would  go  outside  to  a  large  flat  rock  in  front  of 
the  tent,  and  there,  with  hands  in  their  pockets,  talk  some 
more,  A  settlement  was  arrived  at  in  each  case.  There 
is  not  much  law.  Common-sense  rules,  or  tries  to;  and, 
if  that  fails,  there  is  a  big  United  States  marshal  who 
sets  things  straight  in  about  as  arbitrary  and  effective  a 
way  as  a  New  York  police  justice.  In  my  own  case  there 
was  nothing  to  do  save  pay  a  lawyer  $20  for  making  out 
the  papers,  which  were  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  deputy 
marshal,  to  serve  in  event  of  trouble. 

September  5. 

Eight  of  the  packers  buy  three  of  my  horses  at  $50 
each,  the  roan  marc  being  disabled  by  a  cut  on  her  foot, 
and  the  black  somewhere  up  the  trail.    They  now  o\/n  a 

102 


DEATH    or    NELLY 

train  of  ten  horses,  and  have  aj^r  ;ecl  to  move  in  the  com- 
mon interest.  With  a  Hght  pack  I  start  for  Sheep  Camp. 
The  first  thing  after  enterinj?  the  canyon  trail  is  a  horse 
down  with  his  pack,  and  I  recojj^nize  the  ()ld  "skate,"  and 
Jim  and  the  l)oy,  with  Nelly  and  the  "buckskin,"  and  the 
I)utc;:man,  who  is  packing  on  his  own  back.  The  old 
"skate,"  which  we  supposed  worthless,  has  been  doing 
really  good  work  on  the  level  ground,  and  is  neither  sore 
nor  cut ;  but  this  is  his  first  try  at  the  hills.  We  get  him 
up,  and  the  pack  on  again,  Nelly's  back  is  very  sore, 
and  she  groans  under  the  pack.  Half  a  mile  farther  on 
the  pack  turns  on  Nelly,  and  her  back  is  gone.  The  pack 
is  taken  off  and  she  is  led  back  to  the  camp,  where  a 
revolver -shot  puts  the  poor,  patient  little  beast  out  of 
misery.  I  do  not  forget  the  last  words  of  the  man  who 
rode  her  into  Victoria,  little  expecting  her  to  be  sold 
there  by  her  owner.  "Poor  Nelly  !  I  will  never  see  you 
again !"  Wet  blankets,  saddles  not  cinched  tight,  saddles 
that  do  not  fit,  loads  unequally  balanced,  are  doing  the 
sad  work.  We  cannot  see  until  the  saddles  are  off  what 
hundreds  of  horses  are  suffering. 

Jim  is  moving  along  slowly.  It  is  now  too  late,  but 
if  he  had  waited  with  me  two  days  longer  his  outfit 
would  probably  have  been  all  at  Sheep  Camp.  I  was 
sorry,  for  Jim  was  a  good  man. 


ill 


CHAPTER  VI 

Sheep  Camp— Its  Population— Mud  and  Rain— Hotel  Palmer— Sheep 
Camp  to  the  Foot  of  Chilkoot—"  Stone  Houses"— Climbing  Chilkoot— 
Over  the  Summit— Delayed  by  Storms— Lake  Lindeman— lioat-Huild- 
ing— Excitement  of  Departures— Lake  Bennett— Shouting  the  Rapids 
— End  of  Skagway  Trail 

iHEEP  CAMP  is  thirteen  miles  from 
Dyea.  It  is  a  town  of  tents,  scattered, 
to  the  number  of  several  score,  among 
spruces,  along  the  bowlder-lined  shores 
of  the  Dyea  River,  here  a  stream  a  rod  or 
two  across,  and  so  swift  as  to  be  scarcely 
fordable.  It  is  a  convenient  stage  before 
the  climb  over  the  pass,  which  is  four 
miles  distant.  It  is  also  the  last  place 
on  the  Chilkoot  trail  where  wood  can  be  had  for  warmth 
and  cooking.  Two  pack-trains  of  ten  horses  each  run 
the  round  trip  from  Dyea  in  charge  of  two  men  riding 
spare  horses.  There  are  several  hundred  horses  in  all, 
and  a  much  larger  number  of  men.  The  rate  of  pack- 
ing to  this  point  is  14  cents  a  pound.  This  rate,  though 
not  large  on  such  merchandise  as  parcels  of  cigars, 
makes  oats  $16  a  sack,  and  hay  not  less  than  $325  a  Ion. 
The  population  of  Sheep  Camp  may  be  classified  as 
follows:  those  who  have  packed  their  own  stuff  thus  far 
and  are  wavering,  discouraged  by  the  bad  weather;  those 
moving  their  goods  right  through  with  horses  or  on  their 

104 


SHEEP    CAMP 

backs ;  professional  gamblers,  and  a  great  swarm  of  men 
packing  over  the  summit.  These  last  are  mostly  hang- 
ers-on from  Juneau,  several  being  deserters  from  the  rev- 
enue-cutters, while  others  are  men  who  were  bound  for 


THE   FORU   AT    SHEEP   CAMP 


Dawson,  and  who  had  the  wit  or  presence  of  mind,  which 
few  others  seemed  to  show,  to  recognize  a  gold-mine  when 
it  came  before  their  eyes,  even  if  it  was  not  a  Klondike 
one.  They  are  making  great  money.  The  rate  to  Crater 
Lake  is  \2  cents  a  pound;  to  Lindeman,  30  cents  a  pound. 
Many  of  them  take  one  pack  from  here  over,  and  then 
make  (me  or  more  short  packs  over  the  summit,  in  this 
way  making  as  high  as  $26  a  day.  It  is  the  hardest 
kind  of  work,  though,  and  after  a  while  the  feet  and 
ankles  get  so  used  up  that  the  men  have  to  give  up 
and  go  home.     It  is  not  al  vays  with  full  pockets  that 

105 


1 


§ 


m 
Ml 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAxMPEDE 

tliese  men  are  going  back,  for  the  crap  men  and  the 
faro  men  about  a  mining-camp  seem  special  creations 
for  the  purpose  of  relieving  certain  sorts  of  men  from 
the  temptation  to  spend  their  hard-earned  money  in 
worse  ways.     " 

It  has  been  a  continual  downpour  for  the  past  week. 
My  goods  are  all  here,  stacked  under  canvas  and  rubber 
covers ;  but  it  seems  a  hopeless  task  to  keep  goods 
dry.  Horses  have  almost  no  value,  just  the  price  of 
packing  for  one  day;  but  it  costs  $io  for  a  set  of  shoes. 
Everything  is  the  color  of  mud  —  men,  horses,  and 
goods. 

Sheep  Camp  has  a  hotel.     If  any  one  is  in  doubt  on 


WEICIIINW;    I'ACKS    A  r    SIIKM'    CA.Ml' 

that  point,  a  huge  cloth  sign  on  the  front  of  the  building 
announcing  the  fact  in  letters  three  feet  high  is  suffi- 
cient evidence.  That  the  proprietor,  a  Mr.  Palmer,  is  a 
modest  man  is  evident  in  that  he  has  not  placed  his  own 

1 06 


HOTEL    PALMER 


name  in  letters  equally  large  in  front  of  the  simple  but 
gigantic  word  "  Hotkl." 

It  is  one  of  the  two  wooden  buildings  in  town,  built 
of  rough  boards,  and  in  dimensions  about  twenty  by 
forty  feet,  comprising  a  single  room.  A  portion  is  par- 
titioned off  at  the  back  by  a  calico  curtain,  and  here 
live  the  proprietor,  his  wife,  and  a  large  family  of  small 
children,  and  here  the  meals  are  prepared  for  several 
hundred  hungry  packers  three  times  a  day  as  fast  or 
faster  than  the  pack-train  can  bring  the  grub  from 
Dyea.  At  noon,  but  more  particularly  at  evening,  the 
floor  of  the  hotel  is  crowded  by  a  wild,  dirty,  wet,  un- 
kempt crew  of  men  from  Chilkoot,  who  advance  in  re- 
lays to  a  long  table,  where  the  beans,  tea,  and  bacon  are 
thrown  into  them  at  75  cents  each,  payable  strictly  in 
advance.  The  fare  depends  greatly  on  what  the  pack- 
train  has  been  able  to  pick  up  at  Dyea.  There  is  always 
enough,  although  sugar  or  milk  may  be  a  bit  scarce. 
The  men  eat  like  wolves.  "  Still,  there  are  some  who 
kick  at  the  price,"  says  Landlord  Palmer.  "  Why,  the 
price  they  pay  hardly  pays  the  packing  on  what  some  of 
them  eat." 

When  supper  is  over,  the  floor  is  thrown  open  for 
guests.  All  who  have  blankets  unroll  them  and  spread 
them  on  the  floor,  take  off  their  socks  and  shoes  and 
hang  them  on  the  rafters,  place  a  coat  under  their  heads, 
and  turn  in.  By  nine  o'clock  it  is  practically  impossi- 
ble to  walk  over  the  floor,  for  the  bodies.  The  first  night 
I  spent  in  Sheep  Camp  I  spread  my  blanket  under  the 
table,  sharing  it  with  a  fellow-traveller  who  was  not  so 
provided.  No  charge  is  made  for  the  sleeping  privileges 
of  this  hotel.  In  the  morning  the  lavatory  arrangements 
are  of  an  equally  simple  sort.  One  simply  walks  outside 
to  a  brook  that  flows  under  one  corner  of  the  building, 

107 


iiii' 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

and,  after  ablution  in  water  from  a  glacier  up  the  moun- 
tain-side, lets  the  water  dry  on  his  hands  and  face.  I 
noticed  most  of  the  men  did  not  take  even  this  much 
trouble. 

Observing  that  I  was  a  photographer,  the  proprietor 
mentioned  that  he  had  some  things  belonging  to  a  cam- 
era that  a  photographer  had  left,  and  he  was  at  liberty 
to  sell  me  them  if  I  cared  for  them,  and  he  brought  out 
— of  all  things  ! — three  spools  of  4  x  5  daylight  film  !  I 
took  them  quickly  enough.  That  very  day  I  was  going 
down  the  trail  in  Sheep  Camp,  past  a  large  tent  that  I 
had  noticed  before,  when  a  young  man  hailed  me  with, 
"Say,  do  you  want  to  buy  a  camera?  I  see  you  are  a 
photographer."  A  stroke  of  lightning  could  not  have 
caused  me  more  astonishment.  "  I  have  a  camera  here, 
and  I  guess  I  don't  want  it  any  longer.  It's  too  much 
trouble."  it  proved  to  be  the  very  make  of  camera 
that  my  spools  fitted,  and,  as  fortune  is  said  always  to 
run  in  streaks,  he  had  nine  more  unused  spools,  and  was 
willing  to  part  with  them  for  their  cost  in  San  Francisco  ! 
The  young  man,  Charlie  Brannon  by  name,  was  one  of 
the  lucky  men  who  arrived  on  the  Portland,  and  is  now 
on  his  way  back. 

While  waiting  for  the  rain  to  cease  I  took  my  remain- 
ing black  horse  down  the  trail  to  sell  it.  It  was  perfectly 
sound.  No  one  would  make  me  an  offer.  At  the  Ferry 
an  Indian  offered  $20,  to  include  the  halter  ;  but,  not 
having  the  money,  we  started  together  to  the  village. 
On  the  way  I  met  Leadbetter  and  his  former  teamster. 
Leadbetter  had  just  finished  saying  to  him  as  I  ap- 
proached that  I  would  probably  sell  for  $50.  The  team- 
ster asked  me  the  price.  I  said  $25,  and  he  jumped  at 
the  offer.  The  horse  paid  for  itself  the  next  day  on  the 
pack-train  to  Sheep  Camp.     I  didn't  need  to  apologize 

108 


HOW    THE    HORSES    SUFFER 


.'«■  ■  I' 


to  the  Indian,  who  was  looking  on  at  the  transaction 
rather  crestfallen.  He  understood  that  it  was  simply 
his  own  way  of  doing  business.  The  blue  roan,  which 
only  needed  a  rest,  I  gave  away,  rather  than  shoot  it, 
to  a  packer,  a  careful  man,  who  intended  wintering  his 
train  at  Dyea. 

September  12. 

Three  inches  of  snow  reported  on  the  summit,  and  six 
inches  at  Lindeman,  but  the  Indians  say  the  lakes  will 
not  freeze  for  six  weeks.  Donkeys  taken  over  the  pass 
are  starving  to  death,  as  there  is  no  grazing.  The  pack- 
ers, one  by  one,  are  dropping  out  as  the  weather  grows 
worse.  So  the  rates  keep  up.  Discouraged,  many  are 
trying  to  sell  their  outfits,  and  have  set  up  little  stores 
inside  their  tents. 

The  cruelty  to  horses  is  past  belief;  yet  it  is  nothing 
to  the  Skagway  trail,  we  hear.  There  are  three  thou- 
sand horses  on  the  Skagway  trail  —  more  to  kill,  that's 
about  all  the  difference.  Sheep  Camp  is  filling  up  with 
broken-down  brutes.  Their  owners  have  used  them  and 
abused  them  to  this  point,  and  are  too  tender-hearted  (?) 
to  put  them  out  of  their  misery.  Their  backs  are  raw 
from  wet  and  wrinkled  blankets,  their  legs  cut  and 
bruised  on  the  rocks,  and  they  are  as  thin  as  snakes  and 
starving  to  death.  A  Colorado  man  says  to  me,  "  Of  all 
the  cruelty  to  horses — and  I've  seen  a  good  deal — the 
worst  is  on  this  trail ;  they  are  killing  them  with  sticks." 
They  are  hobbling  about  among  the  tents,  tumbling 
over  guy  -  ropes,  breaking  into  caches,  making  great 
nuisances  of  themselves.  No  one  will  take  the  respon- 
sibility of  shooting  them.  Some  one  may  come  along 
and  demand  $50  for  the  dead  horse  perhaps.  That  set- 
tles it.  So  we  drive  a  batch  of  them  out  of  town,  where 
the  poor  creatures  may  find  a  little  feed. 

109 


1 1 

•  t  i 


f'i 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 


A  wretched,  thin,  white  cayuse  came  to  my  tent.  He 
had  been  driven  from  four  miles  above,  where  his  owner 
deserted  him.  It  was  raining  a  cold  rain.  He  put  his 
head  and  as  much  more  as  he  could  inside  the  tent,  try- 
ing to  get  next  the  stove.  He  stayed  there  all  night  and 
was  around  all  next  day,  and  he  had  nothing  to  eat.  I 
am  certain  he  never  felt  the  44-caliber  bullet  back  of  his 
ear  that  evening.  Thereupon  a  general  kf.  .'ng-ofif  began, 
until  carcasses  were  lying  on  all  sides. 

September  14. 

A  dozen  packers  take  my  outfit  across  the  pass  to 
Crater  Lake,  but  will  not  touch  the  boat  lumber.  Flour 
is  a  packer's  first  choice,  lumber  last. 

One  by  one  my  "  partners  "  for  each  few  miles  of  travel 
have  fallen  by  the  way-side.  Several  have  offered  to  pay 
for  passage  down  the  river,  as  boats  at  Lindeman  are 
bringing  prices  that  are  prohibitive  to  most.  Finally  I 
fall  in  with  a  young  man  from  Stockton,  California, 
named  Al  Brown,  who  started  for  Dawson  with  the 
Leadbetter  outfit,  and  is  dumped  here  by  the  collapse 
of  the  undertaking.  He  has  a  good  outfit  of  clothes, 
no  grub,  and  is  determined  to  reach  Dawson,  though 
I  tell  him  I  should  advise  no  one  to  do  a  thing  I  should 
not  do  myself.  He  agrees  to  help  me  to  Dawson,  and  I 
agree  to  pack  his  goods.  Brown  has  had  no  experience 
whatever  in  the  kind  of  life  he  has  entered  upon,  but 
he  is  an  expert  oarsman,  holding  the  amateur  cham- 
pionship of  the  Pacific  coast.  We  start  for  the  summit 
after  our  outfit,  each  with  packs  of  stuff  that  we  could 
not  trust  to  packers,  leaving  the  boat  lumber  in  charge 
of  a  trustworthy  man,  who  promises  to  send  it  over 
without  delay  for  $30. 

From  Sheep  Camp  the  valley  is  a  huge  gorge,  the 
mountain-sides  rising  steep,  hard,  and  bold  to  a  prodig- 

110 


Al      nil'.    lOUl     or    LIUHJOUT    I'AbS 


ill 


ii 


■■'?■  •^'11      ffl' 


'J.  ■ 


( 


APPROACHING    CHILKOOT 


ious  height.  The  valley  begins  to  rise  rapidly,  and  the 
trail  is  very  bad.  A  mile  above  Sheep  Camp,  on  the  left 
hand,  a  huge  glacier  lies  on  the  side  of  the  mountain, 
jutting  so  far  over  and  downward  that  every  moment 
one  expects  a  great  chunk  to  drop  ofT  and  tumble  into 
the  river.  But  it  does  not,  and  only  a  small  stream  of 
water  from  its  melting  forces  its  way  to  the  bottom.  A 
mile  farther  on  is  "Stone  House" — a  large  square  rock, 
crudely  resembling  a  house;  it  stands  on  the  river's 
brink.  At  the  base  of  the  mountain  is  a  great  mass  of 
slide  rock,  some  of  the  bowlders  being  nearly  as  large  as 
the  one  by  the  river.  Some  of  these  rocks  have  piled  on 
top  of  one  another  so  as  to  form  small  caves,  which  the 
Indians  use  for  shelter.  These  also  are  called  "  Stone 
Houses."  The  valley  here  makes  a  sudden  turn  to  the 
right,  and  the  trail  begins  to  grow  steep.  The  valley  is 
filled  with  great  water -and -ice -worn  bowlders.  The 
trail  climbs  from  one  to  another  of  these.  There  is  no 
vegetation,  save  a  few  alders  here  and  there,  and  these 
cease  just  above  "Stone  House." 

The  trail  enters  a  cul-de-sac,  climbing  higher  and 
higher.  The  valley  seems  to  end  ;  a  precipitous  wall  of 
gray  rock,  reaching  into  the  sky,  seems  to  head  off  far- 
ther progress,  seaming  its  jagged  contour  against  the 
sky — a  great  barrier,  uncompromising,  forbidding — the 
Chilkoot  Pass. 

Horses  and  men  with  packs  are  ahead  of  and  behind 
us.  The  sun  has  broken  clear,  and  shines  down  on  a 
strange  scene.  In  a  pocket  under  the  cliff  are  some  score 
of  tents  and  huge  piles  of  baggage.  The  tents  are  held 
to  the  earth  by  rocks  on  the  guy-ropes.  Men  are  busily 
at  work  making  up  the  goods  into  packs  and  unload- 
ing pack-horses.  Adding  to  the  animation  the  rocks 
are  covered  with  bright  blankets  spread  out  to  dry. 
H  113 


III 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 


The  men  take  up  the  packs,  and  this  is  what  happens  : 
They  walk  to  the  base  of  the  cliff,  with  a  stout  alpen- 
stock in  hand.  They  start  to  climb  a  narrow  f(K)t-trail 
that  goes  up,  up,  up.  The  rock  and  earth  are  gray.  The 
packers  and  packs  have  disappeared.  There  is  nothing 
but  the  gray  wall  of  rock  and  earth.  Rut  stop  I  Look 
more  closely.  The  eye  catches  movement.  The  moun- 
tain is  alive.  There  is  a  continuous  moving  train  ;  they 
are  perceptible  only  by  their  movement,  just  as  ants 
are.  The  moving  train  is  zigzagging  across  the  tower- 
ing face  of  the  precipice,  up,  up,  into  the  sky,  even  at  the 
very  top.  See  !  they  are  going  against  the  sky  !  They 
are  human  beings,  but  never  did  men  look  so  small. 

Other  men  are  coming  back  empty,  as  if  dropping  back 
to  earth.  "The  Scales,"  as  the  foot  of  the  precipice  is 
called,  is  one  of  the  most  wretched  spots  on  the  trail ; 
there  is  no  wood  nearer  than  four  miles,  and  that  is  poor. 
The  wind  blows  cold,  and  everybody  and  everything  is 
saturated.  "The  Scales"  gets  its  name  from  having 
been  in  former  years  a  weighing-place  for  goods  hoisted 
or  packed  over. 

We  start  with  our  packs  up  the  side  of  the  mountain. 
Chilkoot  deceives  one  in  this  :  it  seems  to  tower  directly 
over  one's  head,  whereas  the  actual  average  slope  is  about 
forty-five  degrees,  consisting  of  a  series  of  benches  alter- 
nating with  slide  rock.  The  trail  winds  from  bench  to 
bench,  and  there  are  a  number  of  trails  all  reaching  the 
crest  at  about  the  same  place.  The  general  slope  of 
the  path  is  not  great,  and  the  labor  of  climbing  so  lit- 
tle that  when  we  pause  to  take  breath  and  look  back  we 
find  we  are  half-way  up.  In  several  places,  however, 
the  trail  is  very  steep  ;  one  must  climb  on  hands  and 
knees  from  bowlder  to  bowlder — much,  I  fancy,  as  one 
would  go  up  the  pyramids.     We  overtake  horses  going 

114 


IN    THE    SUMMIT    OF    CHILKOOT 


up,  and  an  ox.  We  are  astonished  to  see  how  so  appar- 
ently ckmisy  a  creature  gets  up  the  steep  places.  There 
is  one  very  dangerous  place  ;  it  is  necessary  to  attach  a 
rope  to  the  pack-saddle,  two  or  three  men  go  ahead,  and 
when  the  horse  starts  up  they  pull  hard  on  the  rope  ; 
otherwise  he  goes  over  backward,  as  one  or  two  horses 
have  done.  Once  on  top,  the  trail  crosses  a  broken  yet 
comparatively  level  summit,  over  one  or  two  dirty  gla- 
ciers, and  then  downward  three  or  four  hundred  feet  of 
easy  pitch  to  the  head  of  a  steep  glacier,  where  all  at 
once,  if  the  weather  is  clear,  there  breaks  into  full  view 
Crater  Lake,  a  body  of  pure  green  water,  of  irregular 
outline,  a  mile  or  more  in  length,  lying  in  a  great,  rough, 
crater- like  basin  of  rock.  Some  were  sledding  goods 
on  tarpaulins  down  the  glacier,  which  terminates  in  a 
pile  of  bowlders  as  big  as  wash-tubs,  and  these  continue 
on  at  a  steep  angle  to  the  edge  of  the  water.  Piled  on 
the  bowlders  are  caches  of  goods.  Some  persons  have 
tried  to  set  up  tents  in  this  forbidding  place.  I  do  not 
look  inside  of  any  to  see  how  they  arranged  a  place 
flat  enough  and  smooth  enough  to  sleep  upon,  but  infer 
that  sleep  is  accomplished  even  under  such  adverse  con- 
ditions, as  they  belong  to  the  boatmen,  of  whom  there 
are  three,  ferrying  goods  to  the  foot  of  the  lake  at  i  cent 
a  pound.  Forty  dollars  a  day  was  paid  for  the  use  of  one 
row-boat,  but  the  men  are  making  more  than  that.  They 
earn  their  money  having  to  live  in  such  a  place,  and  no 
wood  within  miles.  One  of  them  tells  me  he  has  been 
there  two  weeks,  and  that  each  morning  he  has  wrung 
the  water  out  of  his  clothes  before  putting  them  on.  We 
are  fortunate  in  getting  our  goods  taken  over  at  once, 
while  we  go  around  by  the  trail  to  the  foot  of  the  lake, 
where  in  a  little  notch  among  the  rugged  rocks  are  tons 
of  freight.    By  the  time  we  unload  and  pile  our  stuff  it  is 

H5 


ii 


,1 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

dark.  With  tent,  blankets,  and  some  grub.  Brown  and 
I  start  for  "  Happy  Camp,"  where  we  hear  there  is  wood, 
but  have  gone  only  a  few  hundred  yards  when  we  have 
hopelessly  missed  the  trail.  We  hunt  for  a  level  plaee, 
and  at  length  find  one  up  the  hill-side,  where  by  pulling 
some  bunches  of  moss  we  make  a  spot  where  we  can  lie. 
It  is  a  very  wretched  prospect.  Throwing  down  the 
tent,  we  spread  our  blankets,  and  then  fold  the  tent 
over.  From  being  cold,  we  nearly  suffocate.  In  the 
morning,  we  can  tell  something  has  happened.  Peeping 
out,  we  find  that  we  are  covered  with  two  inches  of  snow. 
We  are  only  a  few  feet  from  the  trail,  and  a  man  goes  by 
with  a  pack  ;  but  we  cannot  be  seen,  for  we  are  like  the 
surrounding  rocks — white.  Shaking  off  the  snow,  we  sit 
there,  eating  a  tin  of  meat  and  a  piece  of  hardtack.  It 
is  the  Californian's  first  experience  with  snow,  and  he 
enjoys  it 

Next  morning  we  follow  the  water  from  Crater  Lake, 
a  stream  of  some  size,  about  four  miles,  past  "  Happy 
Camp"  —  a  misnomer,  if  ever  there  was  one  —  until  we 
reach  the  head  of  a  lake,  where  there  is  wood  and  a 
little  grazing  for  a  few  wretched  horses.  The  wood  is 
spruce,  scrubby  and  sprawling,  some  of  the  trunks  be- 
ing a  foot  thick,  but  the  trees  themselves  not  over 
ten  or  twelve  feet  in  height.  There  were  about  fifty 
tents  at  the  lake,  which  is  known  as  Long  Lake,  and 
is  two  miles  long.  We  set  up  our  tent  on  the  spot 
where  a  party  were  camped  who  were  just  leaving, 
thereby  having  a  few  bare  spruce  boughs  ready  laid  for 
our  own  bed. 

Next  day  it  begins  to  storm  adown  the  valley — such 
a  storm  as  I  never  saw  before.  It  blows  until  it  seems  as 
if  the  tent,  which  is  held  down  by  heavy  rocks  on  the 
guy-ropes  and  the  edges  of  the  tent,  would  be  taken  bodily 

ii6 


\n 


iii 


SHE  EI'    CAMP    WASHED    AWAY 

and  thrown  into  the  lake.  Goods  have  to  be  piled  end- 
ways to  the  wind  or  else  be  blown  over. 

The  storm  continues  for  several  days,  with  wind,  snow, 
and  rain,  the  sun  shininjj^  clear  each  morning  through 
the  rain.  We  engage  some  men  to  |)ack  our  stuff  over* 
doing  considerable  ourselves.  Now  we  see  the  need  of 
the  heavy  slioes  ;  anything  less  heavy  would  have  been 
cut  in  pieces  by  the  bare,  hard  rocks. 

Plaving  waited  several  days  in  vain  for  the  boat  to  come 
over  the  summit,  we  start  back  to  vSheep  Camp,  and  on 
the  way  we  hear  that  Sheep  Camp  has  been  washed  en- 
tirely away,  and  many  persons  lost.  At  "  Stone  House  " 
the  square  stone  is  gone.  Several  parties  camped  there 
tell  us  the  first  they  heard  was  a  roar,  and,  looking  across 
the  valley,  saw  a  stream  of  water  and  bowlders  coming 
off  the  mountain -top,  the  bowlders  leaping  far  out  in 
air  as  they  tumbled  down,  an  immense  torrent,  and  it 
poured  into  the  Dyea  River,  overwhelming  a  young  man 
who  lidd  gone  to  the  river  for  water,  undermining  the 
big  rock,  flooding  the  tents,  carrying  away  several  out- 
fits, and  speeding  towards-  Sheep  Camp,  bearing  trees 
and  wood  with  it.  Sheep  Camp,  when  we  reach  theie, 
is  a  spectacle.  The  big  saloon  tents  and  many  small 
ones  are  wiped  out,  and  the  main  street,  lately  a  trail  of 
black  mud,  shoe-top  deep,  is  as  clear  and  solid  as  sand 
can  make  it.  The  catastrophe  occurred  on  the  i8th,  at 
seven  o'clock  in  the  morning,  before  many  were  up. 
Numerous  outfits  were  either  buried  or  have  been  car- 
ried away  by  the  flood.  People  are  digging  in  the  sand, 
wringing  garments  and  hanging  them  out  on  the  bushes 
to  dry.     Only  one  life  is  known  to  have  been  lost. 

This  disaster  has  decided  many  who  were  harging  in 
the  balance.  Whether  they  have  lost  their  outfics  or  not, 
it  has   given  them  a  good  excuse  to  gu  back.     From 

117 


I! 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

this  time  on  only  the  strong-hearted  continue  on  their 
way.  Amid  such  general  destruction  I  hardly  expected  to 
find  my  boat  lumber,  but  it  had  been  removed  to  a  place 
of  safety  by  the  packer,  whose  feet  had  given  out  ;  but 
we  find  two  men  to  take  it  over,  and  it  accompanies  us. 
I  found  among  the  wreckage  a  fine  pair  of  Alaskan  snow- 
shoes,  the  toe  of  one  broken  off,  which  the  owner  parted 
with  for  $2.     It  is  snowing  as  we  again  climb  the  sum- 


LAKK     l.INDF.MAN 


I  \>. 


mit,  making  the  ascent  both  difficult  and  dangerous.  The 
storm  still  rages  at  Long  Lake.  Tents  are  beiiig  blown 
down  or  are  banging  like  the  jib  of  a  schooner  going 
about  in  a  three-reef  breeze.  Wondering  if  this  is  a  per- 
manent condition  of  the  weather  here,  we  start  for  Linde- 

m 


LAKE    LINDEMAN 


heir 

d  to 

)l;ice 

but 

us. 

lOW- 

rted 
iim- 


The 
)lown 
?oing 
I  per- 
rindc- 


HirtH.  The  drop  of  eight  hundred  feet  in  elevation  from 
Long  Lake  to  Lindeman  puts  one  into  a  new  and  smil- 
ing country.  There  are  a  hundred  and  twenty  tents  at 
the  lake,  half  that  number  of  boats  in  process  of  build- 
ing, half  a  dozen  saw-pits  at  work,  and  a  general  air  of 
hustle-bustle.  In  the  words  of  the  geography,  "  Ship- 
building is  the  principal  industry"  of  Lindeman, 

The  ferryman  at  Long  Lake  refuses  to  go  out  in  the 
storm,  so  we  pay  him  full  price,  i  cent  a  pound,  for  his 
boat,  a  large  double-ender,  load  our  goods  in  it,  rig  a  small 
square-sail  in  the  bow,  and  scud  to  the  other  end,  leav- 
ing the  owner  to  get  his  boat  when  the  storm  eases  up. 
A  portage  of  a  few  hundred  yards  to  Deep  Lake,  and 
another  ferryman  takes  us  to  the  foot,  a  mile  distant, 
where  we  set  up  tent. 

The  river  here  drops  into  a  narrow  canyon  at  tremen- 
dous speed,  falling  eight  hundred  feet  in  two  or  three 
miles.  The  trail  strikes  across  a  spur  of  the  hill,  strik- 
ing the  lake  near  its  head.  Lindeman  is  a  beautiful 
lake,  four  an(i  a  half  miles  long,  and  narrow,  with  a  tow- 
ering mountain  on  the  opposite  side.  At  its  head,  on 
the  left  h;  nd,  a  river  enters,  and  there  is  timber  for  boats 
up  this  ri^'er.  Vegetation  is  now  plentiful,  but  it  con- 
sists mainly  of  willows  and  a  dwarf  cormis,  or  "bunch- 
berry,"  which  at  this  season,  with  its  purple-red  leaves 
covering  the  whole  ground,  gives  a  rich  look  to  the  land- 
scape. We  pitch  tent  in  a  lovely  spot,  on  which  we  de- 
cide to  build  f)ur  boat.  We  pack  our  goods  over  from 
Deep  Lake,  and  when  the  lumber  arrives  we  build 
"horses"  and  set  to  work  const nict:n<i'  the  V)ateau.  We 
find  some  burros  here  of  the  Lcadbetter  outfit.  Only 
three,  hardly  bigger  than  sheep  —  and  how  slow  I  Dr. 
Sugden  is  driving  them  when  we  first  see  them.  The 
little  beasts,  trained  at  pad- '.ng  ore  in  the  mountains  of 

119 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

California,  know  how  to  go  around  the  trees  with  their 
packs,  but  they  are  helpless  in  the  muddy  places,  which 
alternate  with  the  rocks.  We  take  them  for  one  day; 
but  Brown  says  he  can  pack  faster  on  his  own  back,  so 
we  let  the  next  man  have  them. 

Every  one  is  in  a  rush  to  get  away.  Six  to  ten  hrrits 
are  leaving  daily.  They  are  large  boats,  with  a  load  <r 
five  to  ten  men  each.  The  boats  are  of  several  kinds. 
A  fleet  of  seven  large  bateaux  got  off  as  we  arrived,  but 
the  favorite  and  typical  boat  is  a  great  flat -bottomed 
skiff,  holding  two  or  three  tons  ;  in  le  igth  over  all, 
twenty-two  to  twenty-five  feet ;  beam,  six  or  seven  feet ; 
sides  somewhat  flare  ;  the  stern  wide  and  square  ;  draw- 
ing two  feet  of  water  when  loaded,  with  six  to  ten  inches 
freeboard;  rigged  for  four  oars,  with  steering -oar  be- 
hind. Some  of  this  type  were  thirty-five  feet  in  length. 
There  are  several  huge  scows.  Well  forward,  a  stout 
mast  is  stepped,  upon  which  is  rigged,  sometimes,  a 
sprit-sail,  but  usually  a  large  square-sail  made  generally 
from  a  large  canvas  tarpaulin. 

A  party  usually  sends  two  men  ahead  to  build  the 
boats.  They  must  go  either  five  miles  up  the  river  just 
spoken  of  and  raft  the  logs  down  here,  and  construct 
saw-pits,  or  else  to  a  patch  of  timber  two  miles  back,  and 
carry  the  lumber  all  that  di.-;tance  on  their  shoulders.  A 
saw-pit  is  a  sort  of  elevated  platform,  ten  or  twelve  feet 
high.  On  this  the  log  to  be  sawn  is  laid,  and  a  man 
stands  above  with  the  whip-saw,  while  another  works  the 
lower  end,  and  in  this  way  they  saw  the  logs  into  boards. 
The  boards  are  small,  rarely  more  than  nine  or  ten  inches 
in  width.  It  is  a  poor  quality  of  spruce,  soft  and  "  jAUiky," 
and  easily  broken.  There  is  some  pine  Ihe  i  'vrds  are 
an  inch  thick,  and  planed  on  the  edgc^-.  \lII'.c  I'le  boat 
is  built  the  seams  are  calked  with  onkum  and  i)itched. 

1 20 


BOAT- BUILDING 

The  green  lumber  shrinks  before  it  gets  into  the  water, 
so  that  the  boats  as  a  rule  leak  like  sieves,  but  the  goods 
rest  upon  slabs  laid  upon  the  bottom  cross-ribs. 

Everybody  is  happy,  singing  at  his  work.  When  a 
boat  is  ready  to  be  launched  every  one  turns  in  to  help, 
for  some  have  to  be  carried  some  distance  to  water.  And 
when  a  boat  departs  it  is  with  shouts  of  good  wishes  and 
a  fusillade  of  revolver-shots.  Nails  are  in  great  demand, 
bringing  $i  or  more  a  pound;  likewise  pitch,  which  com- 
mands the  same.    A  few  days  ago,  in  order  to  finish  a 


win  I'-s.wviNt;  uoai   lumhku  , 

boat,  a  man  gave  $15  for  two  pounds  of  pitch.     No  one 
will  sell  lumber  at  all. 

Many  are  selling  out  and  going  back  even  after  reach- 
ing here. 

12! 


THE    KLONDIKE    vSTAMPEDE 


The  last  of  September  it  snowed  six  inches,  and  it  con- 
tinued to  snow  a  little  each  day  after  that.  We  had  to 
work  uii'Jer  an  awning.  At  Crater  Lake  there  were  said 
to  be  Si'  '  ■  '  'fts  twenty  feet  deep.  Still  the  people  were 
coming,  i^  ng  estimated  that  there  were  a  hundred 
outfits  on  tiic  trail  this  side  the  summit,  as  compared 
with  two  hundred  and  twenty-five  two  weeks  before. 

No  one  knows  where  Jim  is.  Three  of  my  horses  have 
been  taken  over  the  summit  and  are  working  on  this 
side.  The  burros  are  feeding  on  rolled  oats.  During  the 
day  we  had  them  they  dined  off  flapjacks  ;  but  this  is 
very  expensive  horse-feed.  Forty  cents  a  pound  packing 
is  added  to  the  price  of  all  commodities  here.  There  are 
many  selling  out  flour  at  $20  a  pack.  L'Abbe  here 
throws  up  the  sponge.  The  little  French  baker,  Rich- 
ards by  name,  from  Detroit,  true  to  his  determination, 
is  here  with  goods,  having  been  working  from  daylight 
to  dark,  and  even  Simpson,  with  his  newspapers.  He  is 
putting  his  canvas  canoe  together  with  alder  frames. 

There  are  but  few  of  the  Islander  party  this  far.  I  see 
only  the  Beall  and  Bowman  party.  A  few  are  ahead,  but 
the  rest  are  behind  or  on  the  Skagway  trail. 

I  was  laid  up  for  a  week — the  constant  wet  and  cold 
had  been  too  much.  Work  stopped  on  our  boat.  On  the 
4th  of  October  the  snow  went  off.  On  October  5th  our 
boat  is  finished;  we  had  decided  to  remodel  her,  giving 
her  six  inches  more  width  top  and  bottom.  The  last 
seam  is  calked  to-day,  and  she  is  carried  down  to  the 
lake,  and  the  next  day  we  load  the  goods  into  her.  She 
stands  23  feet  over  all ;  6  feet  beam ;  16  feet  by  30  inches 
bottom  ;  draught,  18  inches  with  1500  pounds  of  cargo. 

We  start  amid  a  salvo  of  revolver-shots.  The  lake  is 
as  smooth  as  glass — what  Brown  calls  an  "ash  breeze." 
So  he  gives  her  the  ash  oars  initil  a  real  breeze  springs 


MAN    WITH    THE    HORSES 

up,  when  we  hoist  a  sprit-sail,  and  in  a  short  while  are  at 
the  foot  of  the  lake,  where  several  other  boats  are  about 
to  be  lined  through  a  nasty  thoroughfare  into  I^ake  Ben- 
nett. It  has  raised  a  great  load  of  anxiety  from  our 
minds  that  our  little  boat  carries  her  load  so  well;  above 
all,  even  when  loaded  she  responds  to  the  oars  in  a  way 
that  delights  Brown. 

While  we  are  unloading,  a  man  leading  some  horses 
with  packs  comes  down  the  bank  of  the  lake.  There  is 
something  familiar  about  him.     A  second  glance  reveals 


OUK    UATICAl'    KEAUV    I'OR    LArN'CHING 

John  B.  Burnham,  of  Forest  and  Stream,  whom  I  suppose 
still  on  the  Skagway  trail,  and  tell  him  so,  whereupon  T 
discover  that  here,  at  Lindeman,  is  the  end  of  the  Skag- 
way trail!  Thirty -one  miles  from  Dyea  via  Chilkoot; 
forty-five  miles  from  Skagway  wV?  White  Pass: 

Burnham's  party  of  five,  seeing  that  all  could  not  get 
through,  have  undertaken  to  put  two  through  with  full 
outfits,  and  this  is  the  last  load.  Burnham  and  an- 
other are  to  undertake  the  journey  in  four  canvas  ca- 

t23 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 


noes,  two  canoes  being  loaded  as  freight-boats  and  taken 
in  tow. 

The  opening  of  the  White  Pass  as  a  summer  trail  was 
not  a  blunder— it  was  a  crime.  When  the  British  Yukon 
Company  was  advertising  the  White  Pass  trail  and  boom- 
ing itP  town-site  and  railway  proposition,  the  trail  was 
not  cut  out  beyond  the  summit  of  the  pass.  There  was 
at  that  time  no  trail,  and  there  has  been  since  no  trail, 
but  something  that  they  have  called  a  trail,  marked  by 
the  dead  bodies  of  three  thousand  horses,  and  by  the 
shattered  health  and  the  shattered  hopes  and  fortunes  of 
scores — nay,  hundreds — of  men.  Captain  Moore,  whose 
alleged  town-site  rights  the  British  Yukon  Company  ac- 
quired, supposed  the  trail  ought  to  come  out  at  the 
Windy  Arm  of  Tagish.  The  exploration  party  of  the 
Canadian  government,  proceeding  by  the  natural  course, 
went  by  way  of  Touchi  Lake  into  Taku  Arm  of  Tagish, 
and,  in  consequence  of  their  belief  that  that  was  the 
trail,  have  established  the  custom-house  at  the  outlet  of 
Tagish. 

The  story  of  the  Skagway  trail  will  never  be  written 
by  one  person.  It  is  a  series  of  individual  experiences, 
each  unique,  and  there  are  as  many  stories  as  there  were 
men  on  the  trail.  How  much  of  the  awful  destruction 
of  horses  was  caused  by  the  trail,  and  how  much  by  the 
ignorance  and  cruelty  of  the  packers,  will  never  be 
known.  One  outfit  killed  thirty-seven  horses,  and  there 
were  others  that  equalled  or  surpasssed  that  figure.  On 
the  other  hand,  a  Black  Hills  man,  no  other  than  he 
of  the  buckskins,  at  whom  some  smiled  aboard  the 
steamer,  packed  alone  with  three  horses  twenty- four 
hundred  pounds  from  the  "Foot  of  the  Hill "  to  Bennett 
in  eighteen  days.  Each  night,  no  matter  how  tired,  he 
put  his  horses'  feet  in  a  bucket  of  water,  washed  the  mud 

134 


;iv 


THE    CRIMi:    OF    SKAGWAY 

off  their  legs  and  d  ied  them,  and  washed  their  backs 
with  salt  water.  He  came  through  when  the  trail  was 
at  its  worst,  and  sold  the  horses  at  Bennett  for  a  fair 
sum. 

The  attempt  to  blast  the  rock  out  of  the  trail  ended  in 
a  fizzle.  The  giant-powder  ordered  from  Juneau  went 
back  unused.  The  only  real  work  was  done  by  the  min- 
ers themselves  in  corduroying.  Half-way  in  on  the  trail 
goods  were  actually  given  away,  the  unfortunate  owners 
having  neither  money  nor  strength  to  pack  them  either 


>%  ^ 


...  ,^^  W^, 


A    l.AUNCHIN'n    BEF.,    I.AKK    I.INOKMAN 


ahead  or  back,  and  the  trail  being  in  such  terrible  con- 
dition that  outfits  not  only  had  no  sale  value,  but  could 
hardly  be  accepted  even  as  a  gift. 

At  Lindeman  comparatively  few  boats  have  been  sold, 
each  party  generally  building  its  own.  At  Bennett,  how- 
ever, there  is  a  saw-mill,  and  boats  have  been  built  by 

I2S 


ii 


I  ■ :     i     < 


\\ 


I 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 


contract,  the  prices  ranging  from  $250  to,  in  certain  in- 
stances, as  high  as  $600.  Passage  to  Dawson  is  $50  h"ght ; 
with  small  outfit,  $125. 

Landing  our  goods  and  covering  them  with  a  canvas, 
we  take  tent,  grub,  and  tools  over  to  Bennett,  a  distance 
of  three-quarters  of  a  mile,  along  a  sandy  road  through 
a  grove  of  pines.  It  is  long  since  I  have  seen  anything 
so  clean  as  this  sand.  The  air  is  grateful,  and  it  seems 
like  another  country,  only  the  ugly  clouds  hanging  over 
the  distant  white  mountains  remind  us  of  what  we  have 
left  behind.  We  set  up  our  tent  on  a  gently  sloping, 
sandy  beach,  among  other  tents.  Lake  Bennett  to  the 
north  lies  like  a  trench  between  towering,  rugged  moun- 
tains of  great  grandeur.  Their  tops  and  sides  are  white 
down  to  a  line  a  thousand  feet  above  the  lake.  Every 
day  now  this  line  is  creeping  a  little  lower.  Our  guest 
to-night  is  Mr.  Harrington,  a  powder  manufacturer  on 
a  "  vacation,"  who  has  just  helped  Burnham  over  with  a 
load.  He  tells  us  his  experiences  since  we  parted  on  the 
Islander.  He  regales  us  with  a  description  of  some  very 
fine  horse  meat  he  has  had.  I  didn't  suppose  any  one 
had  come  to  that.  Mr.  Harrington  assures  us  that  it 
wasn't  his  horse.  This  is  how  it  was :  A  party  he  knew 
had  a  young  horse  in  good  condition  that  they  had  to 
kill,  and  they  had  tried  the  steak  and  had  found  it  ten- 
der. Burnham  would  testify  to  its  goodness,  for  he  had 
a  big  piece  that  he  was  taking  in  with  him.  I  see  now 
that  it  is  merely  prejudice  about  eating  horse.  Hitherto 
I  had  considered  it  about  the  last  extremity,  like  crow, 
and  it  was  hard  to  feel  that  friends  for  whom  I  had  high 
regard  should  come  to  horse,  much  less  insist  that  it 
was  good  !  Alas,  what  two  months  on  the  Skagway  trail 
does  for  a  man  ! 

Two  months,  and  just  starting !     Next  morning  we 

126 


RUNNING    THE    RAPIDS 

take  a  look  at  the  thoroughfare  between  the  two  lakes. 
It  is  a  gorge  about  three-quarters  of  a  mi!e  long,  with 
rocks  each  side,  but  with  a  clear  channel,  except  near  the 
lower  end,  where  the  river  splits  against  a  large,  nearly 
submerged  rock.  Three  large  Yukon  boats  are  being 
lined  down  by  six  men.  I  tell  Brown  I  think  we  can 
run  the  rapid  with  the  empty  boat.  So,  putting  Brown 
in  the  bow  with  a  large  oar,  and  taking  position  in  the 
stern  with  another,  I  give  the  word  to  push  off.  A  mo- 
ment later  we  strike  the  head  of  the  rapid,  taking  some 
seas,  and  then  the  banks  go  rushing  by. 

A  quick  turn  of  the  stern  oar  at  the  big  rock,  the 
double -endc'-  whirls,  and  soon  w«  are  dancing  in  the 
quiet  chop  of  the  outlet,  and  come  to  a  landing  beside 
our  tent  at  the  head  of  the  lake.  This  is  how  another 
saw  it : 

"  As  I  came  down  the  sandy  hill-side  to  the  lake,  I  saw  at  the 
landing  two  men  unloading  a  trim-looking  double-ender  boat  of 
distinct  individuality  that  it  needed  only  a  glance  to  show  was 
vastly  superior  to  the  ordinary  Yukon  type.  One  of  the  men 
was  a  slender  six-footer,  with  a  face  wind-tanned  the  color  of 
sole-leather. 

"  He  wore  weather-stained  clothes  that,  judging  from  the  gen- 
eral suggestion,  no  doubt  still  carried  a  little  of  the  smoky  smell 
and  balsam  aroma  from  camps  in  the  green  woods  of  New  Bruns- 
wick. His  feet  were  moccasined,  and  his  black  hair  straggled 
from  under  a  red  tobot^gan  cap.  Not  only  was  his  rig  suggestive 
of  the  aborigine,  but  his  every  action  proved  him  to  be  so  thor- 
oughly at  home  in  his  untamed  environment  that  it  is  little  won- 
der that  at  first  glance  I  took  him  to  be  an  Indian,  and  that  it  re- 
quired several  minutes  after  his  jolly  smile  and  voluble  greeting 
to  dispel  the  iUusion. 

"  Adney  was  an  expert  at  river  navigation  ;  and  his  companion, 
though  inexperienced  in  this  kind  of  work,  was  a  champion  oars- 
man, cool-headed  and  gritty.     On  a  later  occasion   I  happened 

127 


li 


•  >  I 


I 


m 

i 

W' 

P 

M' 

THE    KLONDIKE    STA^IPEDE 

to  be  on  the  trail  near  the  point  referred  to.  wlien  I  heard 
some  men  calling  out  from  the  top  of  the  canyon-like  bank  tiiat 
the  Harim:r'.s  Wkkkly  man  was  shooting  the  rapids.  I  ran 
across  just  in  time  to  see  the  boat  swept  by  with  the  speed  of  a 
bolt  from  a  crossbow,  leaping  from  wave-crest  to  wave-crest,  and 
drenching  its  occupants  with  sheets  of  spray.  Adneyand  Brown 
were  standing  erect  in  bow  and  stern,  each  wielding  a  single  oar 
used  as  a  paddle,  and  from  their  masterly  course  it  was  evident 
that  they  had  their  boat  well  under  control.  It  was  all  over  in  a 
very  small  fraction  of  time.  They  had  avoided  by  the  narrowest 
margin  jagged  bowlders  that  it  seemed  impossible  to  pass,  and  in 
a  slather  of  foam  shot  out  into  the  smooth  water  below." — J.  13, 
BURNHAM,  in  Forest  and  Strvain. 


MINERS   AT    DINNER 


y^\\ 


CHAPTER  VII 

Departure  from  13ennett — Storm  on  the  Lake — Klondikers  Wrecked  and 
Drowned  —  Big  Trout  —  Custom-llouse  at  Tagish  Lake  —  Collecting 
Duties  on  Outfits — Will  we  Get  Through  Hefore  it  Freezes  ?— Ice  in 
Lake  Marsh — The  Canyon  and  White  Horse — Shooting  the  Rapids — 
Narrow  Escape — Accidents — Records  on  the  Trees — Departure  from 
White  Horse — Lake  Labarge — Indian  Village  —  Trading  —  Thirty- 
Mile  River — Ilootaliniiua — Hig  Salmon  River — Mush  Ice  —  Little 
Salmon  River — Fierce  Trading  —  Tliievish  Indians — Refugees  from 
Dawson — Five-Finger  Rapids — Starvation? — Arrival  at  Fort  Selkirk 

October  9. 

GALE  is  roaring  down  the  gap,  kick- 
ing up  a  great  sea  in  the  lake  ;  we 
dure  not  wait  longer;  Burnham  not 
ready,  but  says,  "  Don't  wait."  There 
is  a  lull  towards  noon.  We  hoist  the 
sprit-sail;  Brown  tends  sheet  vl-ile  I 
take  a  big  steering -oar  in  the  ster- , 
In  a  few  moments  the  white-caps  arc 
boarding  us ;  the  sail,  having  no  boom  across  the  foot,  be- 
gins to  flap  against  the  mast,  obliging  us  to  run  under 
the  lee  of  a  rocky  point  a  mile  from  the  starting-place. 
Half  a  dozen  big  boats,  with  huge  square  sails,  that 
started  right  after  us,  scud  by  us  at  railroad  speed.  We 
cut  a  boom  for  the  sail  and  pick  a  few  berries,  which  are 
very  plentiful  in  patches  among  the  rocks,  and  then  push 
off  again.  We  square  away  in  great  shape.  There  is  so 
little  freeboard  amidships  that  if  we  should  get  in  the 

i29 


* 


i 


^;x 


T  II  E    K  L  0  N  D  I  K  E    S  T  A  M  V  K  1 )  E 

trough  of  the  sea  we  would  swamp  instantly.  Our  mast 
is  tough  pine,  but  when  the  wind  snatches  the  rag  of  a 
sail  it  bends  as  if  it  wouUl  break. 

Now  begins  the  tight.  'JMu'  little  sail,  small  though  it 
is,  keeps  pulling  us  to  one  side.  Sailors  know  what  "  yaw- 
ing" is,  and  it  takes  all  the  strength  of  one  pair  of  arms 
on  a  twelve  foot  ash  steering-oar  to  keep  her  head  on. 
Now  and  then  a  big  comber  comes  over  the  stern,  and 


^^.         '-'^^^l^m^ 


SAILINC,    DOWN    I.AKK   IIKNNKTT 


we  have  to  bail.     Not  a  ccjve  or  shelter  in  sight,  and  the 
sea  is  getting  worse. 

A  little  way  on  we  pass  a  camp  on  shore  where  they 
are  drying  goods  —  a  capsize,  no  doubt.  Pretty  soon, 
imder  the  lee  of  little  rocky  capes,  boats  are  drawn  out 
on  shore  and  parties  are  camped,  driven  in  by  the  storm. 
The  raw  wind  and  the  spray  stiffen  our  fingers,  but  it  is 
impossible  to  let  go  an  instant  to  put  on  mittens.     We 

130 


NO    vSTARVATION    IN    ALASKA 


overhaul  some  little  boats,  and  pass  three  or  four,  but 
the  big  ones  show  us  elean  iieels. 

About  twelve  miles  down,  the  lake  narrows  to  about 
half  a  mile,  and  here  the  waves  are  terrifie,  and  the 
cross-waves  break  over  the  tarpaulin  covering  the  goods 
amidships.  In  the  midst  of  it  all  the  mast  goes  over- 
board with  a  snap.  Brown  gathers  in  the  sail,  and,  still 
scudding,  we  drop  in  behind  a  point  fortunately  close  at 
hand.  Here  we  are  able  to  get  ;i  new  and  larger  mast. 
One  of  the  boats  we  had  passed  follows  us  in.  It  con- 
tains a  New  York  party  of  two.  When  we  start  again 
they  will  not  follow,  on  account  of  their  heavy  boat-load. 

At  evening  we  run  into  a  little  cove  opposite  the  west 
arm  of  Bennett,  with  a  smooth,  sandy  beach,  where  there 
are  other  boats.  A  few  minutes  later  a  big  Peterboro 
canoe,  with  two  men  in  yellow  Mackinaws,  runs  in  under 
a  small  sail.  It  is  the  United  States  mail  for  Circle 
City.  Around  the  camp-fire  that  night  eager  questions 
are  plied  these  two  men  to  know  just  what  is  going  on 
at  Dawson,  for  they  had  left  Dawson  only  thirty -odd 
days  before. 

The  steamers  had  not  all  arrived  when  they  left,  but 
flour  was  $6  a  sack. 

"  Would  there  be  starvation  ?" 

We  get  this  reply,  spoken  slowly  and  deliberately:  "I 
have  been  eleven  years  in  Alaska,  and  there  hasn't  been 
a  year  yet  when  everybody  wasn't  going  to  starve,  but 
no  one  has  starved  yet." 

"  How  cold  is  it  ?" 

"  Cold,  but  not  so  cold  but  that  a  man  can  stand  it.  I 
spent  one  winter  in  a  tent." 

All  of  which  is  comforting.  The  mail-carriers  have  no 
tent,  but  lie  down  on  a  tarpaulin,  with  another  over 
them,  and  are  off  at  daylight.     They  have  oars  rigged 

131 


i 


'i  I 


■HHSgHM 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 


p. 


to  the  canoe,  and  expect  to  reach  Dawson  in  six  or  seven 
days. 

We  get  under  way  soon  after.  The  wind  has  moder- 
ated, but  a  heavy  sea  is  still  on.  We  run  along  easily  ; 
we  pass  one  boat  that  had  an  earlier  start,  and  are  mak- 
ing every  inch  of  the  little  sail  pull  in  order  to  overtake 
another.  The  lines  of  the  bateau  give  it  a  tremendous 
advantage  over  the  clumsy  whip-sawed  boats  built  at  the 
lakes. 

We  are  running  along  about  a  quarter  of  a  mile  from 
the  right-hand  bank,  which  rises  high  and  steep  into  the 
clouds,  when  we  see  on  the  shelving  beach  a  tent,  and 
some  blankets  and  goods  spread  out  in  the  sun.  There 
are  a  black  dog  and  a  solitary  man,  and  a  smallish  boat 
is  drawn  out  on  the  shore.  As  we  look,  the  man  runs 
down  to  the  edge  of  the  water  and  fires  off  a  gun,  and 
then  gets  into  the  boat.  We  run  in  closer,  and  heave  to 
as  the  man  comes  out,  rowing  frantically,  and  when  we 
get  near  enough  he  calls  out : 

"  Brown  !     Brown  !" 

At  some  risk  of  swamping,  we  hold  the  bateau  into 
the  wind  and  wait.  When  he  gets  within  fifty  yards  we 
can  see  that  he  is  much  excited. 

"  My  partners  !"  says  he.  "  I  haven't  seen  them — it 
was  blowing  too  hard — and  Pete  went  to  take  it  out — 
and  fell  overboard — and  McManus  went  after  him  !" 

It  is  John,  a  Russian  from  San  Francisco,  who,  with 
another  Russian  and  poor  McManus,  had  worked  so  hard 
on  the  trail.  We  had  seen  them  all  often,  but  did  not 
know  their  full  names.  We  gather  bit  by  bit  from  his 
incoherent  talk  that  their  sail  had  been  nailed  fast.  The 
yard  would  not  lower,  and,  in  trying  to  unstep  the  mast 
during  the  hard  blov/  of  two  days  before,  Pete  had  been 
carried  overboard,  and  McManus  had  gone  into  the  icy 

13a 


TAGISH    LAKE 


\  i 


water  to  rescue  him.  It  was  nearly  or  quite  dark  at 
the  time  of  this  accident,  and  they  were  never  seen 
again. 

How  the  Russian  managed  to  get  ashore  is  a  won- 
der. He  had  stopped  several  parties.  They  had  advised 
him  to  go  home,  but  he  is  anxious  to  get  to  Dawson. 
He  offers  Brown  half  the  outfit  to  leave  me  and  go 
with  him.  Brown  refuses.  The  outfit  consists  of  3500 
pounds  of  grub,  and  there  are  valuable  furs  and  cloth- 
ing. Brown  knows  it,  for  he  was  well  acquainted  with 
all  three.  Finally,  being  able  to  do  him  no  good,  we  turn 
on  down  the  lake,  and  last  see  him  awkwardly  trying  to 
row  his  ungainly  craft  ashore.  He  reported  later  at  the 
Canadian  custom-house,  and  it  was  rumored,  though 
with  what  truth  we  could  not  determine,  that  in  the  en- 
deavor to  reach  Dawson  over  the  ice  his  hands  and  feet 
were  frozen. 

By  noon  we  reach  the  foot  of  Bennett,  where,  in  a 
gentle  current,  between  low  banks  a  few  rods  apart,  the 
green  waters  of  the  lake  start  again  on  their  journey — 
Caribou  Crossing,  so  called  from  its  being  a  crossing- 
place  for  the  caribou.  About  a  mile,  and  the  stream 
enters  a  very  shallow,  muddy  lake,  two  or  three  miles 
long,  called  Lake  Nares,  and  then  through  another  slack 
thoroughfare  into  Tagish  Lake. 

Tagish  Lake,  although  a  single  body  of  water,  is  more 
like  a  group  of  lakes,  or  long  arms,  deep-set  amid  high 
mountains.  The  scenery  in  these  lakes  is  magnificent. 
We  put  a  troUing-line  out — a  large  salmon-troll,  such  as 
is  used  on  Vancouver  Island  waters — while  Brown  takes 
the  oars.  As  we  approach  the  mouth  of  Windy  Arm, 
which  enters  from  the  southward,  we  expect  a  blow  and 
a  battle  with  the  cross-seas,  in  consequence  of  what  the 
guide-books  say.     Extraordinary  fortune  is  with  us,  for 

133 


i!r 


h 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

we  row  across  its  mouth  as  on  a  looking-glass,  in  which 
the  tall  hills  are  doubled. 

There  is  a  tug  at  the  trolling- line,  au  we  pull  in 
a  fine  large  trout,  in  length  about  twenty  inches;  in 
color  the  belly  is  milk  white,  sides  drab  gray,  with  large, 
irregular,  often  triangular  spots  of  light ;  pectoral  fins 
steel  blue,  ventrals  tipped  with  light  yellow — a  strikingly 
handsome  fish.  We  get  several  bites,  but  hook  only  the 
one.  That  night,  in  camp  with  several  other  boats,  near 
the  end  of  the  lake,  past  the  Taku  Arm,  one  party  showed 
seven  trout,  weighing  two  or  three  pounds  apiece.  My 
own  trout  had  a  six-inch  white-fish  inside  of  it. 

Next  morning  we  are  later  than  the  others  breaking 
camp,  for  not  only  do  we  have  a  faculty  for  late  rising, 
but  have  to  unload  and  reload  the  whole  outfit  on  ac- 
count of  the  leaking.  All  the  boats  are  leaking  badly, 
but  other  parties  have  more  men  to  do  the  camp-work. 
Our  boat  runs  so  easily  that  when  we  have  what  Brown 
facetiously  terms  a  good  "  ash  breeze  "  we  can  overtake 
and  pass  them  all.  The  other  boats  are  clumsy,  and 
though  many  have  four  oars  to  a  boat,  the  oars,  being 
hewn  out  of  a  pine  or  spruce,  are  so  heavy  that  they  can 
only  take  short  dips,  and  with  a  head-wind  make  no  head- 
way whatever.  The  lower  end  of  the  lake  is  full  of  ducks 
on  their  southward  migration — hundreds  of  them.  Hav- 
ing only  a  rifle,  we  miss  many  opportunities.  However, 
by  a  lucky  shot,  one  drops  while  on  the  wing  to  the 
little  30X30 — indeed,  it  is  as  easy  to  hit  them  on  the 
wing  as  while  bobbing  up  and  down  in  the  waves.  Soon 
the  lake  suddenly  narrows,  and  we  find  ourselves  in  a 
slack  current,  with  flock  after  flock  of  ducks  getting  up; 
and  after  drifting  about  two  miles,  we  see  ahead,  against 
a  bank  of  evergreens  on  the  right,  the  red  flag  of  Britain 
and  some  tents,  and  come  to  a  landing  in  shallow  water 

134 


CANADIAN  CUSTOMS  OFFICERS 

at  the  Canadian  customs  office.  We  make  camp,  and  be- 
fore dark  the  others  drop  in  and  camp.  Besides  John 
Godson,  the  customs  officer,  and  several  assistants,  there 
is  a  squad  of  Northwestern  Mounted  Police  under  In- 
spector Strickland,  who  is  also  postmaster.  The  police 
are  building  a  large  log  barracks,  and  the  scene  reminds 
one  of  the  lumber  woods  of  the  East,  for  we  have  reached 


AMERICAN    MINERS    PAYINO    CANADIAN    CUSTOMS  UrriKS 

a  region  of  small  but  plentiful  timber  and  varied  animal 
life.  It  is  a  pretty  s[)ot  they  have  chosen,  commanding 
a  view  of  the  river  both  ways. 

Foreign  goods  entering  Canada  are  liable  to  duty  as 
follows:  hardware,  30  to  35  per  cent.;  provisions,  15  to 
20  per  cent.;  t(jbacco,  50  cents  per  pound.  Average 
about  25  per  cent. 

135 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

To  all  appearance  Mr.  Godson  is  carrying  out  his  in- 
structions to  deal  leniently.  Says  he :  "I  ask  them  if 
they  have  dutiable  goods ;  I  take  their  statement,  or  they 
may  offer  me  their  bills.  I  do  not  look  into  a  man's 
boat.  I  try  to  judge  each  case,  and  I  recognize  that 
few  have  any  surplus  cash  when  they  reach  here.  In 
such  cases  I  have  taken  a  day  or  two's  labor  whip-saw- 
ing, or  something  else  in  lieu  of  cash,  holding  the  same  in 
trust  until  the  duties  are  forwarded.  I  ask  full  duty  on 
tobacco.     I  have  taken  flour  at  $20  a  sack — trail  price."* 

Mr.  Godson  points  out  that  he  could  have  stationed  in- 
spectors at  both  summits  and  collected  duties  on  Amer- 
ican horses  every  time  they  crossed  the  line ;  but  retal- 
iation by  either  government  would  only  have  ground 
the  innocent  miner  as  between  two  millstones. 

The  custom-house,  which  is  also  the  sleeping -apart- 
ment of  the  customs  officers  and  the  inspector,  is  a 
small  tent,  the  walls  being  raised  three  feet  higher  by 
logs  and  banked  around  with  earth.  There  is  a  stove 
inside. 

An  old-timer,  familiar  with  the  river,  who  is  cooking 
for  the  officials,  tells  us  all  that  he  doubts  if  we  get 
through. 

"  You  will  get  through  Lake  Marsh,  then  the  White 
Horse;  and  if  you  get  through  Lake  Labarge  before  it 


*  There  were  many  complaints  after  leaving  the  post  of  unfair 
treatment.  One  party  bitterly  complained  to  me  that  their  medi- 
cine-chest had  been  "confiscated."  Mr.  Godson  happened  to 
mention  this  very  case  as  an  instance  of  attempted  evasion.  The 
chest  belonged  to  a  physician  who  had  distributed  its  contents 
among  eleven  men  to  escape  duty.  As  it  contained  gold-foil  and 
dentist's  tools  and  was  not  a  bona  fide  miner's  chest,  it  was  held 
until  the  owner  arrived  later.  Blankets  and  seasonable  clothing 
in  actual  use,  and  one  hundred  pounds  of  provisions  were  ex- 
empted. On  the  whole,  it  is  my  belief  that  the  collection  of  du- 
ties was  made  as  easy  as  such  a  species  of  tax-levying  could  be. 

136 


COLLECTING    DUTIES    AT    NIGHT 


freezes,  you  will  make  Thirty  -  Mile  River,  and  possi- 
bly Pelly  River;  and  if  you  get  that  far  you  may  get 
down  with  the  mush  ice." 

"  What  is  the  mush  ice  ?" 

He  urges  us  all  to  "  Hurry  !  hurry  !"  So  do  all  the 
officers — to  start  that  night,  before  the  wind  changed. 

Mr.  Godson  goes  around  to  the  camps,  and  by  the 
light  of  the  fire  takes  inventory  of  their  goods,  so  that 


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CUSTO.MHUUSK    AT  TAC.lSIl    AM)   THE   COLLECTOR,  MK,   JOHN    (;ul)^<i.\ 


they  may  not   be  delayed  in  the  morning.     One  boat 
leaves  at  midnight. 

We  wait  until  noon  next  day  for  the  flotilla  of  canoes, 
which  do  not  appear,  and  then  put  off  again.  We  think  a 
good  deal  over  Inspector  Strickland's  words — that  for  the 
past  three  years  the  Klondike  has  been  frozen  tight  on 
the  13th  of  October.     It  is  now  the  12th. 

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THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 


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Lake  Marsh,  named  in  honor  of  Prof.  O.  C.  Marsh,  but 
sometimes  called  "  Mud  "  Lake  by  the  miners,  is  sepa- 
rated from  Tagish  by  a  slugj^ish  thoroughfare  several 
miles  long,  and  its  length  is  about  nineteen  miles,  nar- 
row, like  the  rest,  and  shallow.  The  sky  is  clear,  and 
when  darkness  sets  in  the  air  grows  bitterly  cold,  and 
we  bundle  up  to  keep  warm.  About  nine  o'clock  we 
put  inshore,  and  find  thin  shore  ice  out  twenty  feet ;  but 
we  discover  a  place  where  there  is  dry  land,  build  a  big 
camp-fire,  and  cook  supper.  The  shore  ice,  as  it  rises 
and  falls  on  the  gently  undulating  surface  of  the  water, 
creaks  and  cries  for  all  the  world  like  a  hundred  frogs 
in  spring-time,  and  it  is  indeed  a  dismal  sound  that 
bodes  us  no  good. 

"If  you  get  through  Lake  Labarge  before  it  freezes!" 

Lake  Marsh  is  freezing  and  Labarge  is  far  away. 

Waiting  only  to  finish  eating,  we  put  out  again  into 
the  lake,  whose  shores  in  the  darkness  we  can  dimly 
make  out,  and  head  for  a  point  about  two  miles  ofif. 
We  are  about  half-way  there  when  the  bow  of  the  boat 
crashes  into  thin  ice.  Thinking  we  are  running  ashore, 
we  turn  out  and  clear  the  ice.  Judge  our  dismay  when 
again  we  crash  into  ice!  We  cut  through  this,  turning 
still  farther  out,  until  we  are  crosswise  of  the  lake.  Again 
we  strike  into  ice.  I  am  at  the  oars  now  We  keep  on 
pulling  with  difficulty,  each  time  cutting  the  blades  into 
the  ice  for  a  hold,  and  we  pass  through  two  or  three  dis- 
tinct belts  of  ice  that  extend  far  out  into  the  lake.  We 
are  now  almost  in  a  panic,  for  it  seems  as  if  the  outlet 
must  be  frozen  u})  tight.  When  we  get  to  clear  water 
we  head  north  again,  keeping  out  from  the  shore,  and 
towards  morning  we  land  and  spread  our  blankets  on 
the  ground  among  some  small  spruces  on  a  low  bank, 
with  several  inches  of  snow  on  the  ground.     After  a  short 


W 


Vi." 


MILES    CANYON 


nap  it  is  daylight,  and  we  start  again.  There  are  no  other 
boats  in  sight.  It  is  not  a  great  way  to  the  outlet,  which 
we  know  by  the  current  that  begins  to  carry  us  along 
while  yet  well  within  the  lake,  and  we  are  soon  floating 
down  a  slack  stream  several  hundred  feet  wide,  with  low, 
wooded  banks. 

The  current  is  easy,  the  river  winding  about  among 
banks  of  sand  some  two  hundred  feet  high.  Along  these 
are  the  holes  of  countless  thousands  of  bank -swallows 
long  since  departed  south. 

We  go  on  thus  for  about  twenty  miles,  the  river  grow- 
ing more  and  more  swift.  We  lie  this  night  on  the  ground 
under  a  big  spruce  two  feet  in  ■  iameter,  and  awake  next 
morning  wet  with  soft  snow,  wh.ch  fell  during  the  night. 
After  an  hour's  run  in  the  swift  current  we  pass  a  fine 
boat  smashed  on  a  rock  in  mid-stream.  Soon  we  hear  a 
shout,  followed  by  another,  "  Look  out  for  the  Canyon  !" 
and  on  the  right  hand  see  boats  lined  up  in  a  large  eddy, 
below  which  is  a  wall  of  dark  rock  and  an  insignificant 
black  opening.  We  pull  into  the  eddy  alongside.  Some 
of  the  men  are  those  we  saw  at  Tagish,  and  some  we 
tiever  saw  before.  They  have  all  taken  a  look  at  the 
Canyon,  and  most  of  them  are  unloading  part  of  their 
goods  and  packing  it  around — a  distance  of  three-fifths 
of  a  mile.  We  go  up  the  trail  to  a  spot  where  we  can 
stand  on  the  brink  and  look  directly  down  into  the 
seething  waters  of  the  gorge. 

Miles  Canyon,  named  in  honor  of  General  Miles,  is 
about  a  hundred  feet  wide  and  fifty  or  sixty  feet  deep, 
and  the  whole  body  of  the  Lewes  River  pours  through 
at  a  high  rate  of  speed  between  the  perpendicular  walls 
of  basaltic  rock  of  the  hexagonal  formation  familiar  in 
pictures  of  the  famous  Fingal's  Cave.  Half-way  down 
the  Canyon  widens,  and  there  is  a  large  eddy,  which  the 

•39 


Mt 


I ) 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

boats  are  told  to  avoid  by  keeping  to  the  crest  of  the 
waves,  and  then  continuing  as  before.  A  boat  starts  in 
as  we  are  looking,  manned  by  two  men  at  the  side  oars, 
and  with  a  Low  and  stern  steering-oar. 

After  our  trip  through  Lake  Bennett  in  the  storm  we 
feel  pretty  sure  of  our  boat,  so  we  conclude  not  to  carry 


AT   THK    HKAD    OF   TIIK   CANYON 


m 


i 

m 


"v- 


any  of  our  stuff  around.  We  tuck  the  tarpaulin  down 
close  and  make  everything  snug,  and  when  Brown  has 
seated  himself  at  the  oars,  and  said,  "All  ready  !"  we  push 
off  and  head  for  the  gateway.  I  think  I  notice  a  slight 
tightening  of  Brown's  mouth,  but  that  is  all,  as  he  dips 
the  oars  and  begins  to  make  the  long  stroke  ;  but  per- 
haps he  can  retaliate  by  saying  some  unkind  thing  of  me 
at  this  time.  As  soon  as  we  are  at  the  very  brink  we 
know  it  is  too  late  to  turn  back,  so  when  we  slide  down  the 
first  pitch  I  head  her  into  the  seething  crest.    At  the  first 

140 


WHITE    HORSE    RAPIDS 


leap  into  the  soapsuds  the  spray  flies  several  feet  outward 
from  the  flaring  sides.  -A  dozen  or  two  huge  lunges  into 
the  crests  of  the  waves,  and  we  know  that  we  shall  ride 
it  out.  All  at  once — it  must  be  we  are  not  exactly  in 
the  middle — the  boat's  nose  catches  in  an  eddy  and  we 
swing  around,  head  up  stream.  It  is  a  simple  matter  to 
turn  her  nose  again  into  the  current,  and  then  we  go  on 
again,  leaping  and  jumping  with  terrific  force.  Brown, 
who  manages  the  oars  splendidly,  keeps  dipping  them, 
and  in  a  few  moments  we  emerge  from  between  the  nar- 
row walls  into  an  open  basin. 

There  are  a  number  of  boats  here  too,  but,  having 
nothing  to  stop  for,  we  keep  on  into  Squaw  Rapids,  which 
some  regard  as  worse  than  the  Canyon ;  when  suddenly 
remembering  that  the  White  Horse  Rapids  is  only  one 
and  a  half  miles  below,  we  drop  ashore,  just  above  a  turn 
of  the  river  to  the  left,  and  make  a  landing  at  a  low 
bank. 

A  view  of  the  rapids  must  first  be  had.  After  turning 
to  the  left  the  river  swings  again  to  the  right  through 
a  gorge  of  basalt  similar  to  the  Canyon  but  only  twenty 
to  thirty  feet  high  and  several  times  its  width.  For  a 
quarter  of  a  mile  it  lashes  itself  into  a  perfect  fury,  and 
then,  with  a  jumping  and  tossing,  it  bursts  through  a 
gorge  a  span  wide  with  banks  level  with  the  water,  and 
then  spreads  out  serene,  once  more  the  wide,  generous 
river.  From  a  vantage-point  on  the  bank  above  we  watch 
a  boat  going  through,  and  we  see  it  emerge  into  the  quiet 
water  and  make  a  landing. 

We  resolve  to  take  out  part  of  our  cargo;  so,  putting 
all  our  personal  baggage  ashore,  leaving  an  even  thou- 
sand pounds  in  the  boat,  which  gives  us  six  inches  or 
more  of  freeboard,  we  turn  her  nose  into  the  current. 

Following  the  roughest  water,  to  avoid  rocks,  we  are 


u      ! 


I    l-i 


( m 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

soon  in  the  dancing  waves  and  pitching  worse  by  far 
than  in  the  Canyon.  As  we  jiunp  from  wave  to  wave, 
it  seems  positively  as  if  boat  and  all  would  keep  right 
on  through  to  the  bottom  of  the  river.  The  water  even 
now  is  pouring  in,  and  it  is  plain  that  the  boat  will 
never  live  through.  One  thought  alone  comforts  us  :  the 
fearfui  impetus  with  which  we  are  moving  must  surely 
take  us  bodily  through  and  out,  and  then — we  can  make 
the  shore  somehow.  I  count  the  seconds  that  will  take 
us  through. 

.  The  effect  to  the  eye,  as  we  enter  the  great  white-caps, 
is  that  of  a  jumping,  not  only  up  and  down,  but  from  the 
sides  to  the  miuuie. 

Now  we  are  in.  From  sides  and  ends  a  sheet  of  water 
pours  over,  drenching  Brown  and  filling  the  boat  ;  the 
same  instant,  it  seems,  a  big  side-wave  takes  the  little 
craft,  spins  her  like  a  top,  quick  as  a  wink,  throws  her 
into  a  boiling  eddy  on  the  left — and  we  are  through  and 
safe,  with  a  little  more  work  to  get  ashore. 

Men  who  were  watching  us  from  the  bank  said  that 
we  disappeared  from  sight  in  the  trough.  Brown  is  wet 
up  to  his  waist.  Everything  is  afloat.  We  jump  out 
leg-deep  into  the  water  near  shore,  and,  when  Ave  have 
bailed  out  some  of  the  water,  drop  the  boat  down  to 
the  usual  landing-place,  a  little  sandy  cove,  where 
we  unload,  pitch  tent,  and,  while  tripping  back  for  our 
five  hundred  pouiKls  of  goods,  watch  the  other  boats 
come  through.  They  are  all  big  ones,  and  all  get 
through  without  mishap.  Our  goods  are  not  damaged, 
because  the  sacks  were  tight  and  they  were  wet  for  so 
short  a  time. 

We  hear  of  pilots  both  here  and  at  the  Canyon,  but 
every  man  takes  his  own  boat  through  to-day.  The 
pilots  take  boats  through  the  Canyon  for  from  $io  to 

142 


■J. 


I.    (■ 


,fi 


A    I)AN(JRR()US    lUT    OF    WATER 

$20  each.*  Those  who  unload  have  the  worst  of  it,  as  the 
heavy  boats  go  through  best.  The  double-ender  swings 
so  easily  that  it  is  hard  to  steer,  and  is  rather  small  for 
the  business. 

The  White  Horse  is  a  bit  of  water  I  have  considerable 
respect  for.  The  imperturbable  Brown,  when  asked  how 
he  felt — if  he  were  scared — replied,  "Why,  no.  You  said 
it  was  all  right.  I  suppose  you  know — it's  your  boat 
and  your  outfit."  I  believe  that  if  a  charge  of  dynamite 
were  to  explode  under  Brown  he  would  not  wink  an 
eyelash. 

Many  say  they  took  more  water  aboard  in  the  Canyon 
than  in  the  White  Horse,  while  Squaw  Rapids  was  worse 
than  the  Canyon.  Once  a  dog  swam  the  Canyon.  He 
tried  to  follow  his  master's  boat,  instead  of  walking 
around.  He  was  a  water-spanie'  though ;  but  he  must 
have  had  more  ups  and  downs  than  he  dreamed  of  when 
he  started  in  the  quiet  water  above. 

There  have  been  no  drownings  in  the  White  Horse 
this  year,  so  far  as  known.  But  probably  no  fewer  than 
forty  drownings  are  to  be  credited  to  this  bit  of  water 
since  the  river  was  first  opcred  to  white  men.  The  trail 
around  the  rapids  is  lined  with  treca  bl^^ed  and  inscribed 
with  the  heroic  deeds  of  those  gone  be'"ore.  They  are 
written  on  trees,  on  scraps  of  paper,  on  broken  oar- 
blades.     Some  are  amusing,  while  all  are  interesting. 

A  load  of  anxiety  is  off  our  T.inds  now  that  we  are 
safely  through.  Next  morning;,  before  starting,  we 
watch  some  boats  come  tliroiigh.  It  is  a  great  sight, 
as  they  come  dancing  into  view  at  the  turn  ;  and  as 
they  go  flying  past  we  give  them  each  a  rousing  cheer. 


*  Two  weeks  before  two  partners  stopped  and  made  enough 
to  buy  an  interest  in  a  Bonanza  Creek  claim. 

K  145 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE    \ 

There  are  no  pilots  to-day,  for  courage,  like  fe<u",  is  catch- 
ing. Last  week  it  was  the  other  way.  A  great  many 
of  the  men  had  wives,  and  they  all  had  "  promised  their 
wives"  that  they  would  not  run  the  rapids.  It  was  sur- 
prising how  many  married  men  there  were. 


-  Vr 


CUARACTKKlSriC    VlliW    UN    Ul'l'KR   YUKON    KIVER 


fa 


i 


Again  in  the  current.  The  banks  have  the  same  ap- 
pearance as  above  the  Canyon,  and  are  one  to  two  hun- 
dred feet  high,  of  sand,  against  which  the  current  is 
continually  wearing,  building  up  on  the  inside  what  the 
miners  call  "  bars."  This,  indeed,  is  the  general  charac- 
ter of  the  upper  Yukon — steep,  slanting  sand  or  gravel 
banks  on  the  outcurve,  low  flats  densely  timbered  with 
spruce  on  the  inside. 

About  two  hours  after  leaving  the  White  Horse,  we 
make,  as  we  suppose,  a  cut-oft  across  a  sharj)  bend  to 
the   left,   and   suddenly    find    that   we    are    rowing   up- 

146 


TRADING    WITH    INDIANS 

scream — the  Tahkeena  River.  Turning  about,  we  come 
pretty  soon  to  an  enormous  loop  in  the  river.  The 
map  shows  a  slender  cut  -  off,  saving  two  miles.  The 
other  boats  are  pushing  us  behind,  but  the  cut-off 
is  so  slender  when  we  reach  it  that  we  conclude  that 
"  the  long  way  around  is  the  shortest  way  home." 
We  have  just  got  around  nicely  when  the  river  spreads 
out  between  bars  and  islands,  our  boat  stops  with 
a  scrape,  and  we  have  to  climb  out  and  tow  the  boat 
up-stream  until  we  find  the  channel  again.  When, 
after  much  labor,  we  get  through,  we  are  chagrined  to 
find  that  the  hindmost  boats  have  taken  the  cut-off  and 
overtaken  us.  In  a  little  while  we  get  the  chop  of  a 
strong  north  wind  against  the  current,  and  at  dark  run 
into  a  lake.  Observing  a  large  camp-fire  on  the  left 
hand,  and  taking  it  to  be  a  miner's  camp,  we  make  in 
that  direction,  and  after  a  stiff  pull  suddenly  crash  into 
something  which  prove  to  be  fish-weirs,  and,  resting,  Ave 
hear  children  crying  and  dogs  barking  —  undoubtedly 
an  Indian  village.  N  >t  caring  to  lie  awake  all  night 
watching  our  goods  if  we  land  here,  we  turn  our  bow  up 
shore  and  land  behind  a  point  of  trees  about  a  mile  dis- 
tant, on  a  hard  beach,  at  a  pile  of  drift-wood.  Pretty 
soon  another  boat  with  three  miners  comes  along,  and 
they  build  another  fire  alongside  ours.  While  we  are 
eating  some  boiled  loon  that  a  lucky  shot  secured  us  on 
the  river,  two  Indian  boys  appear  in  the  firelight  with 
a  bundle,  which  they  throw  down  on  the  ground  and 
stand  curiously  staring  at  us.  We  ask  them  what  they 
want,  whereupon  they  open  the  bundle  and  display 
two  small  mountain -sheep  skins,  half  a  dozen  caps  of 
ground-squirrel  skins,  and  one  of  cross-fox.  The  biggest 
boy  is  about  nine,  the  other  seven  years  of  age.  They 
beg  for  something  to  eat,  and  oft"er  a  cap  for  a  cupful 

'47 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 


I 


of  black  tea  (leaves),  which  our  neighbors  give.  One 
of  the  miners  shows  them  a  small  32-caliber  revolver, 
rusted  and  perfectly  useless.  How  their  eyes  snap  ! 
They  look  it  over  carefully,  inquiring  by  signs  about 
ammunition,  and  at  length  give  all  their  squirrel  caps 
for  the  pistol  and  six  cartridges.  Just  then  two  Indians 
walk  up  into  the  firelight.  One  is  a  very  old  man  in 
a  fox  -  skin  cap,  a  blanket  -  circular  over  his  shoulders, 
close-fitting  leather  leggings,  and  moccasins  handsomely 
worked  with  quills.  The  other  is  a  young  man  in  store 
clothes,  who  has  learned  a  few  words  of  English  at 
Dyea.  There  is  Indian  talk  between  the  four.  Pretty 
soon  the  biggest  boy  pulls  the  pistol  out  of  his  pocket 
and  hands  it  to  the  white  man  with  a  sheepish  look, 
saying,  "Papa  no  like."  The  furs  were,  of  course,  re- 
turned. "  Papa,"  standing  erect  and  uncompromising, 
dignified  and  stern,  was  admirable.  The  young  man  has 
seen  just  enough  of  civilization  to  spoil  him  ;  he  fawns, 
and  hands  us  with  evident  pride  a  paper  upon  which 
some  white  man  has  written  that  the  bearer  is  "  all  right, 
and  for  white  men  to  be  kind  to  him."  We  give  them 
each  a  cup  of  tea,  and  after  a  while  they  go  away.  We 
learned  afterwards  that  we  acted  wisely  in  not  stopping 
at  their  camp,  for  between  pilfering  Indians  and  thieving 
dogs  we  should  have  had  a  sorry  time.  It  is  freezing 
to-night,  but  there  is  no  snow  on  the  ground. 

Lake  Labarge,  named  in  honor  of  Labarge,  an  explorer 
for  the  long-ago-projected  Russo-American  telegraph,  is 
about  thirty  miles  long  and  two  miles  wide  at  its  narrow- 
est part.  It  is  rare  that  a  strong  wind  is  not  blowing  either 
up  or  down,  so  fiercely  that  the  miners  are  often  delayed 
as  at  Windy  Arm.  In  the  morning,  however,  there  is  not 
a  breath  of  air  to  disturb  the  surface  of  the  lake.  As  Al's 
good  strong  arms  send  the  boat  along  in  the  good  "ash" 

•      148 


' 


ON    LAKE    LABARGE 

breeze,  the  water  is  so  still  that  it  seems  as  if  the  boat 
were  suspended  in  the  air.  The  sight  of  this  mirror-like 
surface,  with  bold  headlands  of  rounded  gray  limestone, 
patched  with  groves  of  small  dark  spruce,  is  truly  impres- 
sive. We  try  the  troll,  but  it  drags  so  heavy  that  we  soon 
take  it  in ;  but  there  must  be  trout  in  the  clear  green 
water  along  the  gray  cliffs.  After  a  cup  of  tea  in  a  pretty 
sandy  cove,  the  air  begins  to  breathe  fitfully  upon  the 
smooth  surface  of  the  lake.  Now  it  has  caught  the  boats 
behind  us  and  others  along  the  far  shore.  We  clap  on  sail, 
and  in  three  minutes  the  lake  is  covered  with  white-caps. 
We  scud  along  until  dusk  ;  there  is  not  a  niche  in  the 
frowning  wall  of  rock  into  which  we  can  run  and  camp. 
Darkness  falls  and  we  can  only  steer  for  the  dim  outlet, 
where  a  twinkling  glimmer  shows  us  a  miner's  camp-fire. 
In  half  an  hour  a  point  of  land  suddenly  opens  up,  and  we 
see  close  at  hand  a  large  camp-fire,  and,  when  we  are  near 
enough  to  hail,  some  men  on  shore  direct  us  into  a  shel- 
tered bight  alongside  two  large  boats.  They  prove  to 
be  friends  from  Lindeman,  who  left  there  one  week  be- 
fore. We  lay  our  blankets  on  the  hard,  frozen  beach 
gravel,  with  the  tent  over  all  to  keep  off  dew,  and  we 
sleep  warm,  but  the  others,  who  have  stoves  inside  their 
tents,  complain  bitterly  of  the  cold.  In  the  morning  we 
are  white  with  frost.  Another  night  like  this,  with  a 
still  lake,  and  Labarge  would  close  ;  as  it  is,  there  is  con- 
siderable thin  ice  along  shore.  In  the  spring  the  ice  in 
Lake  Labarge  does  not  break  up  for  a  week  or  more  after 
the  river  is  clear.  The  miners,  when  they  reach  the  head 
of  the  lake,  instead  of  waiting  for  the  ice  to  go  out,  often 
place  their  boats  on  sleds  and  with  the  strong  south 
wind  behind  them  glide  over  the  lake,  which  at  that 
season  is  as  smooth  and  glare  as  a  bottle. 

Leaving  our  friends  to  follow,  we  pull  to  the  outlet, 

m 


),* 


w 


(.J. 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

one  mile  away,  and  observe  that  we  ran  a  grave  risk  of 
running  upon  a  reef  exactly  in  the  middle  of  the  out- 
let— a  nice  predicament  for  a  stormy  night.  From  here 
to  the  junction  of  the  Hootalinqua,  distant  27.5  miles  by 
survey,  the  Lewes  is  called  by  the  miners  "Thirty-Mile 
River."  The  boat  slips  along  in  the  swift  current  as  fast 
as  the  most  eager  can  wish,  rapid  after  rapid,  with  rocks 
here  and  there  popping  up,  making  navigation  really 
dangerous.  Just  as  we  are  pulling  off  from  our  hasty 
lunch  a  bi^,  boat  with  four  oars  turns  in,  containing  the 
little  black  French  baker  from  Detroit,  who  is  here,  after 
working  like  a  horse  day  and  night  on  the  trail.  But  Jim, 
he  says,  will  not  get  out  of  the  mountains.  As  the  party 
intend  to  stop  at  Stewart,  we  take  letters  to  post  in  Daw- 
son for  friends  at  home.  Soon  after  lunch  we  dash 
through  a  break  in  the  wall  of  hills,  out  into  a  broad 
valley  and  a  leisurely  current — that  of  the  Hootalinqua, 
or  Teslintoo,  River,  which  drains  Lake  Teslin.  Looking 
up-stream  any  one  would  '3ay  that  the  Hootalinqua 
was  the  main  river  valley  and  a  larger  stream  than  the 
Lewes.  But  the  discharge  of  the  Hootalinqua  is  con- 
siderably less  on  account  of  its  slower  current.  The 
water,  no  longer  clear  and  limpid,  is  yellow  and  muddy, 
while  the  whole  aspect  of  the  country  has  become  more 
mild.  White  birches  are  seen  for  the  first  time ;  the 
cottonw'^'  ds  are  larger,  the  very  spruce  greener,  due  to 
the  lower  altitude. 

But  the  winter  is  coming  on  faster  than  altitude  dimin- 
ishes. We  work  hard  with  both  oars  and  paddle,  and  over- 
take more  boats,  which  prove  to  be  of  our  own  crowd  of 
yesterday,  who  kept  on  through  the  lake  in  the  night  and 
got  the  start  of  us  this  morning.  One  of  them  has  a  stove 
set  up,  and  they  do  all  their  cooking  aboard,  which  saves 
time.    As  the  boat  drifts  along,  with  the  smoke  pouring 

}i9 


DREARY    OUTLOOK' 


/ 


out  of  the  stove-pipe,  it  looks,  at  a  little  distance,  like  a  di- 
minutive steamboat.  At  dusk  our  companions  turn  in  to 
camp,  but  we  go  on.  After  rowing  for  several  miles  with- 
out finding  a  camping-place,  we  discover  a  little  break  in 
the  bank,  which  turns  out  to  be  the  mouth  of  a  small  creek. 
It  is  like  a  little  canal,  about  ten  feet  wide.  While  we  are 
dragging  the  boat  into  it.  Brown's  boot  sticks  in  the  mud. 
and  in  trying  to  lift  it  he  falls  full  length  into  the  water, 
and  I  have  to  build  camp  while  he  changes  his  clothes. 
The  outlook  is  certainly  dreary.  Snow  on  the  ground, 
and  little  wood  to  build  the  fire.  Cutting  a  green  spruce 
for  boughs,  we  lay  them  on  the  ground  in  front  of  the  fire 
made  of  half-dead  wood,  and,  rigging  the  oars  and  poles 
into  a  tepee,  throw  the  tent  around  them.  The  thermome- 
ter has  stood  at  29°  all  day,  with  a  wretched  wind  from  the 
north.  We  observe  signs  of  musk-rat  and  beaver  here,  so 
the  winters  cannot  be  so  terrible.  After  Brown  has  turned 
in  under  the  blankets,  the  little  note-book  comes  out,  and 
in  the  glow  of  the  red  fire  the  day's  notes  are  written  up. 
We  have  lost  track  of  the  days.  Our  appetites  are  grow- 
ing bigger.  We  don't  do  much  cooking,  being  satisfied 
with  hardtack  and  rolled-oat  mush,  made  in  fifteen  min- 
utes, served  with  condensed  milk  and  sugar,  and  fiap- 
jacks  cooked  in  the  frying-pan.  Every  man  on  the  trail 
has  learned  the  toss  of  the  wrist  and  flip  of  the  frying-pan 
in  preparing  this  staple  article  of  the  prospector's  diet. 
In  the  morning  we  are  ofl^  at  daybreak  ahead  of  all  rivals. 
Towards  noon,  as  we  approach  Big  Salmon  River,  which 
enters  on  the  right,  we  see  something  ahead  that  looks 
like  foam.  Running  into  it,  we  see  that  it  is  masses  of 
fine  crystals,  loosely  held  together  like  lumps  of  snow. 
It  is  the  first  of  the  mush  ice  running  out.  We  jab  pad- 
dles through  it,  remembering  what  the  old  cook  had 
said,  but  soon  leave  it  behind  us. 

•5J 


!l 


i{  % 
■>    its 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 


Brown  prefers  rowing  to  steering,  so  we  agree  not  to 
change  off.  Brown  has  taken  to  our  rough  camps  like 
an  old-timer.  The  other  night  when  we  had  to  lie  among 
some  very  uneven  hummocks  and  stumps,  instead  of 
growling  he  merely  said,  "We  accommodated  ourselves 
to  the  lumps  first-class." 

As  we  near  the  Little  Salmon  River,  thirty-six  miles 
below  Big  Salmon,  a  boat  just  ahead  is  seen  to  land  and 
take  aboard  three  sm.ll  Indian  boys  with  s|ot-guns,  evi- 
dently a  juvenile  hunting-party.  A  mile  farther  we  pass 
the  mouth  of  Little  Salmon  on  the  right,  and  see  ahead 
smoke  from  a  camp  and  a  group  of  men  on  the  bank. 
The  men  begin  waving  their  arms  and  shouting  to  at- 
tract our  attention,  and  we  run  in  to  shore.  It  is  a  large 
encampment  of  Indians.  They  have  built  a  sort  of  land- 
ing-place out  of  logs,  floored  with  hewn  boards,  evidently 
for  boats  to  land.  As  we  make  fast  the  float  is  crowded 
with  the  most  dirty,  smoky,  ragged,  ill-looking  creatures, 
and  more  come  running  down  the  bank,  all  excited,  and 
carrying  things  evidently  for  sale.  They  are  old  men, 
young  men,  boys,  children  with  sore  eyes.  One  man  carries 
a  tanned  moose  hide  ;  others  a  dried  salmon,  a  chunk 
of  black  smoked  moose  or  caribou  meat,  a  black -bear 
skin,  a  grizzly -bear  skin,  a  dog  skin,  a  spoon  made  of 
mountain-sheep's  horn,  a  beaver  skin,  etc.  As  I  step  out 
on  the  platform  first  one  and  then  another  begins  pulling 
at  my  arms  and  clothes,  and  every  way  I  look  an  arm 
clutching  something  is  thrust  into  my  face,  with  a  regu- 
lar hubbub  of  voices.  To  escape  the  fury  of  the  on- 
slaught, I  jump  back  into  the  stern  of  the  boat,  think- 
ing how  fortunate  it  is  that  the  boat  is  well  covered 
with  canvas.  We  have  a  box  about  a  foot  long  that  we 
keep  our  kitchen-stuff,  candles,  etc.,  in.  It  happe."  ■  to 
be  left  exposed  and  they  catch  sight  of  it.     One  seizes  a 

152 


( 


TRADING    WITH    INDIANS 


!i 


candle,  another  a  bar  of  tar  soap,  and  they  begin  offering 
to  buy,  calling  out,  "How  muchee?"  "How  muchee?" 
They  have  money — silver  dollars  and  half-dollars. 

I  can't  see  what  they  want  with  soap,  but  sell  them 
the  cake  for  half  a  dollar.  We  need  the  spoons  and 
candles  ourselves,  so  I  make  a  sortie  and  take  a  lot  of 
things  away.  They  next  catch  sight  of  my  camera, 
and  one  man  offers  $5  for  it.  I  am  too  confused  and  busy 
seeing  that  nothing  gets  away  to  find  out  what  they 
think  the  camera  is.  Brown  is  in  his  element ;  he  has 
the  trader's  instinct.  He  has  opened  up  five  !>r  six  pounds 
of  tobacco,  and  is  up  front,  with  a  crowd  of  Indians 
around  him,  getting  rid  of  it  at  4  bits  (50  cents)  a  plug. 
An  old  Indian,  a  gentle-looking  old  fellow,  sees  my  rifle, 
which  I  always  keep  in  reach.  I  show  it  to  him,  explain- 
ing the  "take  down"  feature  and  the  Lyman  sight.  His 
eyes  glisten.  He  cannot  speak  a  word  of  English.  He 
says  something  to  a  young  man  beside  him  with  a  shock 
of  dirty  black  hair  reaching  to  his  shoulders  and  a  red 
handkerchief  tied  around  his  forehead,  and  the  young 
man  puts  his  hand  in  his  pocket  and  pulls  out  a  $20 
gold  piece  and  oft'ers  it  to  me,  at  the  same  time  point- 
ing to  the  gun.  I  shake  my  head.  A  word  from  the 
old  man  and  the  young  man  dives  in  his  pocket  again 
and  hands  five  silver  dollars  along  with  the  gold  piece. 
I  shake  my  head.  Down  he  goes  again,  and  this  time 
shows  five  more,  making  $30  in  all.  He  is  going  up  $5  at 
a  jump,  and  evidently  means  to  own  the  gun  ;  but,  hav- 
ing no  intention  of  parting  with  it  at  any  price,  I  put  it 
away,  and  convince  him  that  it  is  positively  not  for  sale. 

At  this  moment  there  is  a  hubbub  around  the  boat 
that  picked  up  the  little  boys.  A  sudden  outcry,  then 
some  run  up  the  bank  and  others  come  running  down.  It 
is  wild  for  a  few  minutes,  and  then  the  excitement  sub- 

153 


11; 
1'; 


ii) 


11 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

sides.  Plainly,  something  is  up.  I  ask  the  fellow  with 
the  red  handkerchief,  who  speaks  a  few  words  of  Eng- 
lish.    He  replies,  with  a  smile,  "  Oh,  just  Injun  talk." 

An  old  Indian  with  a  blanket  offers  a  pair  of  mittens 
trimmed  with  ermine.  i  ask,  "  How  much  ?"  "  Two 
dollars"  (I  thought  he  said).  I  hand  him  two  silver 
dollars,  and  he  hands  me  the  mittens,  and  stands  wait- 
ing, repeating  "Two  dolU" — something.  Then  I  under- 
stand he  means  $3.50.  I  shake  my  head.  He  still  re- 
peats, "  Four  bits."  So  I  hand  the  mittens  back  and 
demand  my  money,  which  is  still  clinched  in  his  fist. 
He  refuses  to  give  it  up,  and  makes  signs  for  me  to 
give  him  back  the  mittens.  I  make  signs  that  I  have 
just  given  them  to  him.  He  says  something,  shakes  his 
head,  and  feels  all  over  himself — the  old  scoundrel.  In- 
stantly I  jump  up,  so  that  the  whole  boat  can  be  seen, 
and  then  lift  the  cover  clear,  so  it  can  be  seen  by  all  that 
the  mittens  are  n(^t  there.  Then  I  step  off  the  platform 
and  actually  have  to  pry  the  dollars  out  of  his  fist. 

After  several  vain  efforts  to  pull  Brown  away  from  his 
customers,  I  start  to  push  the  boat  off,  when  the  last  of 
the  Indians  clambers  out.  Just  as  we  push  off,  the  old 
villain  who  tried  to  flimflam  me  out  of  $2  came  running 
to  the  boat,  threw  aboard  the  mittens,  which  I  knew 
very  well  he  had,  and  holds  out  his  hand  for  the  $2, 
which  I  give  him. 

I  never  knew  until  now  that  so  much  voice  and  muscle 
could  be  put  into  the  operation  of  exchanging  com- 
modities. The  method  is  to  get  hold  of  something  they 
want  in  the  clinched  fist,  pressed  tight  against  their 
breast,  at  the  same  time  shoving  what  they  have  to  sell 
into  one's  face,  like  a  man  making  passes  with  boxing- 
gloves,  accompanied  by  cries  and  grunts  to  attract  at- 
tention.    When  twenty  dirty  savages  are  doing  this,  the 

154 


ROBBED    BY    I  N  D  I  A  N  vS 

effect  can  be  imagined.  A  Baxter  Street  clothing  man 
would  be  skinned  alive,  or  else,  like  the  cats  of  Kilkenny, 
there  would  be  nothing  left  of  either  at  the  end  of  the 

trade. 

When  we  camp  that  night  wc  hear  of  the  trouble. 
"One  of  the  Injuns,"  says  one  of  the  men  that  were 
in  the  boat,  "handed  me  a  watch  he  said  he  had  bought. 
I  looked  at  it  and  handed  it  back.    It  dropped  out  of  his 
hand  and  struck  on  a  rock  and  broke  the  crystal.     He 
picked  it   up  and  looked  at  it,   and  then  handed  it  to 
me.     I' took   it   and   saw    that  the  crystal  was  broken. 
Just  then  he  raised   a  howl,  and  all   the   Injuns   came 
runnin'  down,  and  the  fellow  said  I  had  broken  the  watch 
and  he  wanted  me  to  buy  it  for  $35  or  pay  $5  for  a  new 
crystal  in  Dawson.    It  looked  like  there  was  going  to 
be  trouble.     They  had  three  shot-guns  loaded,  and  our 
rifles  were  covered  up  where  we  couldn't  get  at  them, 
and  we  thought  we  had  better  pay  the  $5  and  have  no 
trouble. 

"  Them  little  devils  we  took  into  our  boat — wny,  they 
came  aboard  with  guns  all  cocked.  We  gathered  the 
guns  and  let  the  hammers  down,  and  they  just  laid  back 
and  laughed." 

When  we  take  stock  from  our  belongings  we  find  miss- 
ing a  pair  of  scissors,  a  bag  of  tobacco,  and  a  candle  out 
of  the  "  wamgun  "  box. 

These  Indians,  pilfering  thieves  that  they  are,  doubt- 
less are  only  practising  on  the  white  men  what  the  Chil- 
cats  have  taught  them  ;  they  are  only  getting  even. 

Next  morning  a  cold  north  wind  and  a  heavy  mist  over 
the  water;  camp  thirty-eight  miles  below  Little  Salmon. 
Cold  night,  and  heavy  mist  again  in  the  morning  makes 
it  difficult  to  see  where  to  steer  among  the  islands 
and  bars,  which  are  numerous  in  this  part  of  the  river. 

155 


iHE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 


m  ■ 


The  mist  is  dissipated  by  the  rising  sun,  but  there  is 
a  brisic  raw  wind  in  our  face,  and  the  boat  is  leaiving 
badly.  Brown  to-day,  while  rowing,  keeps  his  coat  on 
for  the  first  time. 

The  little  "steamboat"  with  us  again.  At  noon  we 
fasten  alongside,  and  use  their  stove  for  making  some  tea 
and  flapjacks.  We  pass  a  log-cabin  on  an  extensive  flat 
on  the  left  bank.  Two  Indian  men  and  an  old  squaw 
beckon  for  us  to  stop,  but  we  have  had  enough  of  Indians. 
It  proved  to  be  the  trading -post  occupied  by  George 
Carmack  just  before  he  went  down  river  and  found  the 
gold  on  Bonanza  Creek. 

We  overhaul  a  bunch  of  four  boats  drifting,  the  men, 
with  guide-books  out,  scanning  the  river  ahead.  They 
say  Five-Finger  Rapids  is  close  at  hand,  and  at  every 
island  they  make  ready  to  pull  ashore,  being,  it  seems  to 
us,  unduly  apprehensive.  But  we  are  not  in  doubt  when, 
turning  suddenly  to  the  right,  a  great  barrier  looms  up 
a  mile  ahead  —  five  great  irregular  blocks  of  reddish 
rock  ranging  across  the  river  like  the  piers  of  a  bridge 
— making  two  principal  channels.  That  on  the  left  is 
growling  ominously  over  shallow  rocks,  so  we  turn  to 
the  right  and  drop  into  a  small  eddy  a  few  hundred  feet 
above  the  great  wall.  We  climb  up  and  look  at  the  rapid. 
It  seems  by  no  means  dangerous.  The  opening  is  about 
one  hundred  feet  wide,  with  vertical  walls,  through  which 
the  river  suddenly  drops  a  couple  of  feet,  the  waves  rising 
angrily  in  a  return  curl,  then  dancing  on  in  rapidly 
diminishing  chops  until  lost  in  the  swift  current  below. 

The  other  boats,  evidently  not  seeing  our  eddy,  have 
stopped  half  a  mile  above,  and  are  roping  down  the 
shore.  Without  waiting  (it  being  too  late  in  the  day 
for  a  successful  photograph),  we  turn  our  prow  squarely 
for  the  middle  of  the  cleft ;  a  drop,  a  smash,  a  few  quarts 

156 


s  w  A  p  1'  I N  G  I-:  X  p  !•:  R 1 1<:  n  c*  i-:  s 

of  water  over  the  sides,  and  we  are  shui  throuj^li  into 
the  fast  current,  without  even  looking  back.  Soon  we 
hear  the  roar  of  Rink  Rapids,  six  miles  below  that  of 
Five-Finger;  but  keeping  close  to  the  right  bank,  ac- 
cording to  directions,  we  find  them  nothing  but  a  bad 
reef  extending  half-way  across  the  river,  on  the  left ;  on 
the  right  there  is  not  even  a  ripple. 

We  run  until  dark,  camping  in  four  inches  of  snow,  but 
with  plenty  of  dry  wood,  some  of  the  spruce  being  two 
feet  through.  The  five  other  boats  (h^op  in,  and  we  swap 
experiences  around  the  fire.  One  young  fellow,  a  boy  of 
about  twenty,  tells  how  he  came  to  be  hei  c  "  I  was  in 
Seattle  at  the  time,  and  I  just  wrote  home  that  I  was 
going  in  with  all  the  rest  of  the  crowd  of  crazy  fools  " 
None  of  his  crew  knew  anything  about  river  navigation 
when  they  started,  and  they  have  been  spending  half 
their  time  on  bars.  Another  story  is  of  a  man  who  got 
into  the  big  eddy  in  the  Canyon  and  spent  three  hours 
rowing  round  and  round,  not  knowing  how  to  get  out. 
Not  one  life  (that  any  of  us  has  heard  of)  has  been  lost 
this  summer  at  the  White  Horse,  but  there  have  been 
several  smashes.  One  party,  who  roped  their  boat 
through  instead  of  running,  lost  all  their  pork  and  flour 
by  the  swamping  of  the  boat.  Twenty-four  other  boats 
that  day  ran  the  rapids  safely. 

The  river  from  now  on  "is  very  wide,  and  split  up  into 
numerous  channels  by  wooded  islands.  We  run  into  what 
looks  like  a  good  channel,  following  the  left  bank,  when 
all  at  once  the  river  shoals,  and  we  only  get  off  by  wading 
and  dragging.  A  deeper  boat  would  never  have  got  out 
of  the  trap.  We  are  nearing  the  Pelly,  but  cannot  see 
the  river,  though  its  valley  is  visible  on  the  right.  »Swing- 
ing  to  the  west  and  skirting  a  high,  flat  bank,  we  pass 
a  small  steamer  drawn  (nit  of  the  water,  then  a  cabin, 

157 


11 


'|1        1; 


'  I  !: 


;  r 


i  j 

w 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

tlien  several  more,  and  finally  draw  up  in  front  of  a  cluster 
of  log  buildings,  where  a  trodden  path  leads  u{)  the  snow- 
covered  bank.  There  is  no  human  being  in  sight,  but 
half  a  dozen  wolHsh,  hungry-looking  dogs  ccjme  bound- 
ing down  the  bank  with  a  volley  of  barks,  which  (juickly 
subsides  into  curiosity  mingled  with  ill -disguised  suspi- 
cion. They  are  the  native  Eskimo- Indian  dog,  heavy, 
thick-haired,  with  powerful  legs  and  neck,  a  sharp  muzzle, 
slanting  eyes,  and  short,  erect,  wolf  ears.  A  look  at  them, 
and  a  slight  knowledge  of  their  kind,  decides  us  to  anchor 
the  boat  a  little  distance  from  shore  by  fastening  a  ten- 
foot  pole  to  the  bow  and  resting  the  other  end  in-shore, 
the  long  painter  being  made  fast  to  a  post  above. 


r\    Q  r   .      a 


yt.^^ 


-'    >*^'**  ft-'^-^i^-ii-^  ^^ 


-C-t/C/t-- 


^i^^^J^.  ^Z^ 


^i/te^vv" 


FACSIMILK   OF  A    RIXORI)   ON   A  TRI.K   AT  THK   WIUTK   HORSE  RAl'IDS 


If 


CHAPTRR  VIII 


Former  Hudson's  Hay  I'ost— Present  Alaska  t'oniniercial  Conipany  Store- 
Talks  witii  the  Storekee|)er— More  about  the  Shortage  of  drub— Start 
from  Fort  Selkirk  —  Heavy  lee— Below  Zero— Miners  Hauled  Out, 
Waitiiiji  for  River  to  Clear— 1  )an|;ers  of  llic  Heavy  Ice  —  Stewart  River  . 
—Accident  in  the  Sweepers— Sixty-Mile  Post— "  This  is  Dawson" 

Oilohr  22. 

^ORT  SELKIRK  lies  on  the  left  bank  of 
tlic  Lewes,  a  mile  below  its  junction 
with    the    Pelly.      These   streams   are 
about  equal  in  size,  and  together  form 
the  Yukon  proper.     The  first  post  of 
that   name  was  built  at  the  junction 
of  the  two  rivers  in   KS48  by   Robert 
Campbell,  an  employe  of  the  Hudson's 
Bay  Company,  who  entered  the  region  that  year  by  the 
head  of  the  Pelly,  and  was  occupied  until  1853,  when,  on 
account  of  the  danger  from  ice  during  the  spring  over- 
flow, it  was  removed  to  the  present  site.    That  same  year 
a  band  of  Chilkats,  who  had  been  watching  with  jealous 
eyes  the  encroachments  of  the  company  upon  their  hither- 
to exclusive  trade  with  the  interior,  or  "Stick,"  Indians, 
raided  the  post  durin'g  Campbell's  absence  and  burned 
the  buildings  to  the  ground.      Fort  Yukon  had  been  es- 
tablished in  1847,  at  the  junction  of  the  Porcupine  and 
Yukon,  by  A.  H.  Murray,  of  the   same  company ;  but  it 
was  not  supposed  that  the  "Pelly"  of  Campbell  and  the 
Yukon  were  the  same  stream  until  several  years  later, 

"59 


!i.^' 

4 ' 

s  } 

1 ,    ■ 

|ij 

r 
i 

r 


TIIR    KLONDIKE    STAMI'KDE 

when  Campbell  (lr()p[)ecl  down  the  river  to  Fort  Yukon 
iiiid  proved  them  identical.  Fort  Selkirk  had  been  so 
difficult  to  maintain,  having  been  supplied  in  the  last 
two  years  of  its  existence  via  Fort  Yukon  and  the 
Porcupine  and  Mackenzie  Rivers,  that  it  was  never 
rebuilt.     In  1883,  Lieutenant  Frederick  Schwatka  noted 


TRADING-POST    AT    FORT     SKIKIKK    I.OOKINC,    TOWAUDS    THK    YUKON 
FROM     Tllli    SriK    OF    TllF.    Ol.l)    1H"1)S(I.n's    HAY    COMI'ANY's    I'OST 


that  two  stone  chimneys  of  the  old  post  were  then 
standint>-;  at  the  present  time  even  these  are  gone 
and  no  monument  remains  of  the  splendid  fortitude 
of  Robert  Campbell  and  of  the  enterprise  of  his  great 
company,  except  some  blackened  bits  of  floor  logs  and  the 
name  which  he  gave.  The  site  of  the  old  post  is  still 
pointed  out,  a  few  yards  in  the  rear  of  the  present  build- 
ings, which  consist  of  a  store  and  dwelling-house  built 
of  logs,  and  sevetal  small  log-cabins,  belonging  to  Ar- 

i6o 


ALASKA  COMMERCIAL  COMPANY'S  POST 


on 

St) 

ast 
:he 
•er 


thur  Harper,  an  agent  of  the  Alaska  Commercial  Com- 
pany. These  buildings,  :,nd  some  others  in  the  dis- 
tance, occupied  by  Indian-,  and  a  mission,  and  a  long 
pile  of  cord  -  wood,  are  all  that  meet  the  eye  as  we 
scramble  on  hands  and  feet  up  a  very  steep  and  slip- 
pery path  to  the  top  of  the  bank,  followed  by  such  of 
the  dogs  as  have  perceived  the  hopelessness  of  raiding 
our  boat. 

A  little  smoke  rising  out  of  a  pipe  in  the  roof  of  the 
nearer  building  is  the  only  sign  of  life,  except  the  dogs. 
A  paper  tacked  to  the  side  of  the  door  reads  that  no 
steamer  has  been  up  for  two  years  and  there  are  no 
provisions  for  sale,  except  some  condensed  milk  at  a 
dollar  a  can.  vStopping  only  to  glance  at  this,  we  walk 
in  and  find  ourselves  in  a  room  about  fifteen  by  eighteen 
feet,  with  ceiling  of  rough  boards  laid  over  heavy  joists, 
hardly  higher  than  one's  head,  with  one  corner,  embrac- 
ing ihr  doorway,  fenced  off  from  the  rest  by  a  wide  board 
counter,  evidently  designed  so  that  the  Indians,  who  re- 
sort hither  to  exchange  their  furs  for  white  men's  goods, 
may  not  handle  the  bolts  of  white  and  red  cotton  cloth, 
blankets,  boxes  of  tobacco,  etc.,  which  scantily  cover 
some  rude  shelves  against  the  l)ack  wall.  A  small  glass 
show  -  case  on  the  counter  contains  an  assortment  of 
knives,  needles  and  thread,  etc.  Hanging  from  nails  in 
the  back  wall,  and  from  the  ceiling",  are  l)lack  bear-skins, 
tanned  moose-hides  (a  pile  of  v  Inch  also  lies  on  the  floor), 
several  bunches  of  sable-skins,  and  eleven  beautifid  sil- 
ver-gray and  black  fox-skins.  Long,  narrow  snow-shoes, 
moose-hide  moccasins,  and  mittens  lie  on  the  shelves, 
floor,  and  counter,  while  a  ladder  at  the  back  leads  to 
a  loft  overhead.  The  interior  is  lighted  by  two  small 
windov/s  in  the  front  and  another  in  the  end,  and  a 
globular  iron  stove  in  the  near  corner  throws  out  a  heat 

L  161 


?^l 


1 

■  , 

1 

1 

\ 

i 

i 

I 

'  1 

. '.-' 

! 

\B 


m: 


f  I 


in . 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

that  accentuates  a  pcrvadinj^  smell  of  smoked  leather 
and  furs.  At  a  small  desk  behind  the  counter  stands  a 
little,  ji^rave,  sober  man,  with  dark,  thin  beard,  the  sole 
person  in  charge  of  this,  a  typical  Northwest  Indian  trad- 
ing-post, and,  as  it  proves,  the  only  white  man  in  the 
whole  place,  the  agent,  Mr.  Harper,  having  gone  "out- 
side."'* 

After  nodding  good-day  and  inquiring  if  we  have  made 
our  goods  safe  from  the  dogs,  the  store-keeper,  J.  J.  Pitts 
by  name,  patiently  answers  our  inquiries  about  the  con- 
ditions at  Dawson.  Then  we  put  our  names  down  on 
some  sheets  of  foolscap,  which  Mr.  Pitts  says  is  a  reg- 
ister of  all  who  have  gone  by  this  summer,  save  about 
one-third  who  have  passed  without  stopping,  from  which 
it  appears  that  about  3600  persons  have  passed  in.  We 
prepare  to  go  on,  intending  to  camp  in  the  woods  a  few 
miles  below,  when  in  the  most  quiet  way  jiossible  the 
grave  little  man  remarks  thai  we  had  better  bring  our 
stuff  up  and  stop  in  Mr.  Harper's  cabin — an  invitation 
that  does  not  need  pressing.  While  we  are  gone  for 
grub -sack,  cooking  -  tools,  and  blankets,  Mr.  Pitts  has 
kindled  a  fire  in  a  small  cabin  back  of  the  warehouse. 
After  building  the  fire,  he  brings  in  a  small  kerosene 
lamp  (the  only  one  in  the  place,  we  discovered),  and 
then  leaves  us  U)  cook  supper. 

Our  cabin  comprises  a  single  room,  about  twelve  by 
fourteen  feet  inside,  with  an  eight  -  foot  wall,  a  small 
window  at  the  south  end,  and  another  at  the  north.  The 
furniture  consists  of  a  rude  board  table,  the  butt  of  a 
log  for  a  chair,  and  an  empty  bunk,  or  stationary  bed 
for  two  persons,  in  one  corner.     After  supper  we  repair 

*  Mr.  Arthur  Harper,  concerning;  whom  more  will  be  said,  died 
at  Los  Angeles,  California,  the  same  winter. 

163 


THE    S  T  O  R  i:  -  K  !•:  K  P  F.  R 


■tSil 


to  the  Wig  house  and  si)en(l  the  cveiiino  talkiiii]^  over 
a  bottle  of  Scotch,  ;i  rare  hixury  here. 

No  one  would  take  Pitts  tor  a  miner  ;  and,  if  ea^einess 
to  sell  goods  were  a  qualification  in  a  trader,  he  would 
not  be  considered  even  a  _i;(ii)d  trader.  As  a  person  who 
had  sto|)ped  at  the  post  once  facetiously  remarked,  Mr. 
Pitts  "seemed  sorry  if  any  one  bought  anything  out  of 
the  store."  He  is  a  man  wrapped  in  his  own  thoughts. 
Sometimes  such  men  are  cranks.  Every  man  becomes 
a  crank  who  stays  long  in  this  country.  And  who  but 
an  old-timer  would  growl  and  growl,  and  then  give  the 
best  in  the  house?  It  is  an  instructive  talk  for  us,  his 
being  the  first  intelligent  account  of  facts  and  condi- 
tions that  we  had  hi'ard. 

"So  many  are  coming  in  unprepared,  either  with  out- 
fits, experience,  or  common-sense,"  says  he.  "They  ask 
me  what  the  j)rice  of  flour  is  in  Dawson.  I  tell  them  it 
has  no  price.  '  Rut  it  must  have  some  price,'  they  insist. 
'It  has  no  price.  If  the  stores  wdl  sell  it  to  you,  you 
will  pay  $6  a  sack  ;  but  there  has  been  no  liuie  tiiis  sum- 
mer when  a  man  could  get  a  complete  outlit  from  the 
stores.  Last  winter  flour  was  freighted  from  Forty-Mile 
and  sold  in  Dawson  for  $40  to  $60  a  sack.  Vou  will  see 
it  sell  this  winter  for  $ioo.' 

"The  boats  are  stuck  and  there  is  a  shortage  of  grub 
and  a  stampede  out  of  Dawson.  People  outside  talk  as 
if  the  steamers  on  this  river  run  on  a  sched.de  ;  wher(!as 
they  are  liable  to  be  stuck  on  a  bar  and  not  get  oft"  at  all 
and  be  destroyed  by  the  ice  in  the  spring.  The  country 
is  not  and  never  has  been  well  supjjlied.  Mr.  Harper 
says  that  in  the  twenty-five  years  that  he  has  been  in  the 
Yukon  there  has  not  been  a  year  whan  there  has  not 
been  a  shortage  •>(  something.  One  yi-ar  it  was  candles, 
and  the  men  had  to  sit  in  the  dark,     .vnother  year  some- 

•fJ3 


m 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

thing  else.  This  year  it  is  flour.  The  only  permanent 
relief  is  a  railroad.  This  will  have  its  drawbacks,  for  we 
will  then  be  overrun  with  hoboes  and  silver  cranks.  At 
present  we  are  not  troubled  with  these  things,"  and  he 
smiled  faintly. 

"This  is  essentially  a  prospectors'  country;  it  is  no 
place  for  the  majority  of  those  who  are  coming  in. 
They  .are  carpenters,  clerks,  and  the  like.  They  may 
do  well,  but  only  for  a  while.  The  only  ones  calculated 
to  succeed  are  those  who  understand  the  hardships  and 
have  grit  and  determination  besides.  Has  the  young 
man  who  is  with  you  a  sufficient  outfit  ?"  I  told  him 
he  had  not  ;  that  he  was  strong,  and  was  willing  to  take 
the  risk  of  getting  something  to  do  and  buying  grub. 
"That  is  a  very  foolish  thing  for  him  to  do,"  he  replied. 
"  Many  people  are  short,  and  more  may  have  to  leave 
before  spring.  The  time  was  when  it  would  go  hard 
with  the  man  who  was  responsible  for  bringing  in  a  per- 
son like  that." 

It  is  not  pleasant  to  contemplate  what  our  condition 
may  be  before  spring.  There  need  be  no  starvation 
as  long  as  th<>re  is  grub  in  camp.  There  may  be, 
and  probably  will  be,  serious  trouble.  Pitts,  therefore, 
seems  justified  in  saying  that  to  deliberately  come  un- 
prepared with  food  is  hardly  short  of  a  crime  against 
every  other  man  in  the  camp. 

The  Indians  here  occupy  about  a  dozen  cabins,  and 
are  of  true  North  American  Indian,  of  Tinneh,  or 
Athapaskan  stock.  Along  the  Yukon,  between  Fort 
Selkirk  and  the  Porcupine  River,  they  occupy  a  num- 
ber of  small  villages,  speak  one  language,  and  distin- 
guish themselves  as  "  Yukon  "  Indi;."s.  They  are  a 
hunting  race,  sub^^ijiting  by  the  chase  and  fishing,  ex- 
changing their  furs,  moose  and  caribou  hides,  meat,  and 

164 


THE    "MUSH"    ICE 


dried  fish,  for  flour,  tea,  blankets,  dry-got)ds,  bacon,  am- 
munition, etc.  Formerly  the  fur  trade  was  large,  but 
now  the  Indians  find  it  more  profitable  to  hunt  and  sell 
meat  to  the  miners. 

Next  morning,  October  23d,  it  is  five  degrees  below 
zero  at  seven  o'clock,  by  the  government  thermometer — 
bitterly  cold,  and  a  thick  fog  envelops  the  river.  Pitts 
advises  us  not  to  risk  starting  in  the  fog.  We  go  back  and 
stand  around  the  big  stove,  pawing  over  skins  and  furs. 
Pitts  wants  to  send  some  moose-hides  to  Dawson,  where 
they  are  in  great  demand  for  moccasins,  mittens,  and 
gold -sacks.  After  picking  out  some  he  hesitates,  then 
says,  "No,  I  won't  send  them  ;  1  don't  think  you'll  reach 
Dawson." 

About  noon  the  fog,  which  results  from  the  cold  air 
meeting  the  warmer  water  of  the  river,  is  dissipated  by 
the  heat  of  the  sun,  revealing  on  the  far  side  heavy  ice 
pouring  out  of  Peliy  and  filling  half  the  river. 

By  keeping  to  the  left  we  are  able  to  avoid  the  ice, 
which  is  in  lumps  of  every  form  from  soft  slush  to 
round,  hard  cakes  bigger  than  a  wagon-wheel.  The  ice 
forms  in  granules,  or  crystah,  in  the  little  eddies  and 
still  places  behind  [)ebbies  and  bowlders  in  the  bottom 
of  the  streams.  When  a  considerable  mass  has  formed 
it  detaches  itself  from  the  bottom,  rises  to  the  surface, 
and  floats  away.  If  the  mass  is  sufficiently  large,  it  may 
pick  up  portions  of  the  gravel-bed  and  carry  them  off. 
As  it  meets  other  masses,  they  crowd  toge' Ikm",  and  thus 
it  continues  to  grow,  the  top,  exposed  to  the  air,  freezes 
hard,  and  a  small  ice-floe  has  begun  its  existence.  Meet- 
ing others,  and  freezing  together,  the  floe  keeps  increas- 
ing in  size,  and  then  it  commences  t<»  rub  against  other 
floes  and  against  the  bank,  making,  a  rounded  disk,  hard 
on  to[),  with  one  c)r  two  feet  of  loose  slush  below.     In  this 

165 


% 


w 


T  1 1  !•:    KLONDIKE    S  T  A  M  P  !•:  D  E 

manner  the  "mush,"  "slush,"  or  "anchor"  ice,  as  it  is 
variously  called,  forms  in  all  X<^rthern  rivers.  But  the 
story  that  in  Klondike  the  rivers  freeze  from  the  bot- 
tom up,  instead  of  from  the  top  down  (because  the  ground 
is  colder  than  llu-  air),  is  a  mistake.  As  we  skirt  the  belt 
of  movini;-  '\cv.  the  low  sliiirr  of  the  floes  as  they  rub  to- 
gether makes  us  bend  to  the  oars  and  i)addle. 


NEAKIM;    DAWSON 


i-^ 


Tlie  water  freezes  to  the  oars,  until  they  bei-ome  un- 
manageable and  again  and  again  we  have  to  stop  and 
pound  the  ice  otf  with  an  axe.  Mittens  are  frozen  stiff, 
mustaches  a  mass  of  icicles,  and  no  nivitter  how  hard  we 
work  we  can't  keep  warm.  The  eurrent  is  swift.  We 
have  gone,  we  judge,  twenty  miles  when  the  setting  of 
the  sun  and  the  lowiring  of  tin-  fog  warns  us  to  make 
camp.    Drawing  the  WyaX.  close  up  to  the  shore,  and  secur 

i66 


£li 


DRIFTING    WITH    THE    ICE 


m^  the  long  painter  to  a  tree,  we  set  up  our  tepee  on  a 
high,  flat  bank,  and  a  snapping  bhize  of  (h'y  spruee  soon 
makes  us  forget  our  discomfort.  We  eat  our  flapjacks  and 
beans,  drink  our  tea,  and  lie  back  on  the  blankets  before 
turning  in.  The  ominous  s/i-s/t  of  the  ice  can  be  plain- 
ly heard — a  most  unwelcome  sound.  Suddenly  there  is 
a  long,  dull  roar  under  the  bank.  S|)ringing  across  the 
fire,  we  gain  the  edge  of  the  bank  just  as  a  floe  forty  feet 
long  goes  by,  scra|)ing  the  boat.  Without  stopping  to 
decide  oi  the  manner  of  getting  down,  we  throw  our 
stuff  out  on  the  bank,  and  then  haul  the  boat  out,  safe 
from  harm.  Our  little  boat  seems  now,  from  the  tension 
of  our  minds,  more  than  ever  t.)  stand  between  us  and 
death.  iVltliough  the  boat  is  really  safe,  we  stand  for  a 
long  time  watching  the  river.  The  stillness  is  broken 
only  by  the  sound  of  the  ice,  and  the  northern  lights, 
flashing  with  a  pale -green  light,  make  a  weird  iini)res- 
sion.  We  have  abandoned  all  hope  of  reaching  Dawson. 
There  are  hundreds  on  the  river  this  night  feeling  as 
we  do.  At  ten  o'clock  the  therm'MTieter,  only  si.\  f(*et 
from  the  fire,  but  shadi^d  by  a  stick,  registers  one  de- 
gree above  zero.  Befor.;  an  o.utdoor  fire  one  side  of  a 
person  freezes  while  the  other  burns. 

Next  morning  the  river  is  filled  with  ice,  grating,  chaf- 
ing, grinding,  turning  against  the  shore  like  great  cart- 
wheels. We  lighten  the  boat  by  chop|)ing  the  ice  from 
her  sides  and  bottom,  and  reload.  When  the  sun  has 
dispelled  the  mist,  we  wait  for  an  opcniii'^  in  the  ice, 
push  the  bow  out.  and  the  next  moment  arc  among  the 
floes,  borne  helplessly  along  in  the  current.  Our  first 
care  is  to  keep  from  being  again  thrown  au.mist  the 
bank,  which  has  a  strong  tendency  to  hai)pen  ;  but  we 
soon  discover  that  the  double-ender  works  easily  among 
the  floes,  and  we  can  do  what  larger  boats  cannot  -work 

167 


m 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 


hi  I' 


our  way,  pushing  into  the  more  open  leads,  and  even  aid- 
in*;  the  current  with  the  oars.  A  vague  uneasiness  pos- 
sesses us  yet.  At  a  narrowing  of  the  river  the  ice  begins 
to  crowd  around  the  boat.  There  is  no  longer  a  bit  of  blue 
water  as  big  as  one's  hand  ;  we  are  packed  solid,  and  hardly 
moving.  We  can  only  sit  here  with  the  canvas  around 
us,  not  knowing  what  moment  the  ice  will  stop.  The 
bleak  mountains,  thinly  clad  with  vegetation  ;  the  tall, 
dark  spruce,  now  whitened  by  the  condensation  of  mist ; 
the  dull,  gray  sky  ;  the  thick  mist  clinging  to  the  water  ; 
our  little  boat  drifting  along — a  picture  of  loneliness. 

As  night  approaches  we  see  on  the  bank  a  boat,  with 
a  cache  of  goods  on  the  shore,  and  two  men  hail  us  to 
stop  and  help  them  with  their  boat,  which  has  been 
badly  crushed  in  the  ice.  Landing  a  quarter  of  a  mile 
below,  in  a  sort  of  eddy  where  the  ice  has  frozen  out 
thirty  feet,  we  chop  a  recess  just  large  enough  for  the 
boat,  and,  after  removing  the  goods  to  a  safe  place  on 
the  bank,  we  go  up  to  where  the  men  are,  and  find  them 
in  a  tent — three  men  in  all.  They  ask  us  if  we  have  seen 
a  raft  of  beef  above — which  we  had,  but  whether  of  beef 
we  could  not  tell,  as  we  passed  too  far  from  it.  They 
tell  us  that  the  raft  belongs  to  William  Perdue,  who 
brought  in  seventy  head  of  cattle  over  the  Dalton  trail, 
losing  twenty  on  the  way  in  the  quicksands,  but  butcher- 
ing fifty  just  below  Five-Finger  Rapids.  One  of  their 
party  is  with  the  raft,  and  they  tell  of  a  serious  misad- 
venture of  theirs.  Near  Five-Finger  Rapids  they  saw  a 
white  steer  loose  on  the  bank.  Thinking  it  was  one  that 
had  gone  astray  frf)m  the  Dalton  trail  and  was  lost,  they 
shot  it  and  dressed  the  meat.  This  was  hardly  finished 
when  a  man  who  proved  to  be  Perdue  came  along  in- 
quiring if  they  had  seen  a  white  steer  which  he  said  he 
was  depending  on  !<>  help  him  get  out  logs  for  a  raft. 

i68 


If: 


FIND    A    RAFT    OF    MUTTON 


They  owned  lo  luiviny  killed  sueh  ii  steer,  and,  as  it  was 
undoubtedly  the  one  that  belonged  to  Perdue,  there  was 
no  alternative  but  to  express  reji;ret  at  the  mistake  and 
pay  for  the  meat,  and,  further,  to  turn  in  and  help  him 
get  out  the  logs.  The  raft  having  been  completc^d  and 
loaded  with  meat,  they  left  one  of  their  number  with  it, 
and  eame  on  until  the  ice  crushed  in  the  side  of  their 
boat. 

In  the  morning,  however,  there  is  no  need  for  our  help, 
as  the  shore-ice  has  frozen  out  st)  that  they  can  reach 
the  damaged  part  and  repair  it.  We  have  to  chop  our 
own  boat  out  of  four  inches  of  ice,  and  go  on.  Before 
we  leave,  the  men  give  us  some  advice  that  eventually 
gave  us  trouble,  through  no  fault  of  theirs.  They  tell  us 
to  look  out  for  a  beef -raft  ahead  of  us;  probably  hung 
upon  a  bar  —  in  fact,  a  party  coming  up  afoot  had  defi- 
nitely reported  that  to  be  the  case.  They  recommend  that 
when  we  meet  the  raft  we  bargain  for  a  quarter  of  meat, 
which  we  can  buy  at  about  one-half  or  one-third  its  worth 
in  Dawson  ;  and  that  if  the  men  have  deserted  the  raft,  to 
take  the  beef,  as  the  owners  naturally  will  be  only  too  glad 
to  have  it  delivered  to  them.  When  we  have  gone  some 
distance,  and  are  still,  as  we  judge,  about  twenty  miles 
from  White  River,  a  flock  of  about  fifty  ravens  are  seen 
flying  over  a  spot  in  the  middle  of  the  river,  and,  floating 
nearer,  we  perceive  a  raft  lodged  squarely  upon  the  head 
of  a  small  island  or  bar,  deserted.  Taking  this  for  the 
raft  referred  to  by  the  men,  we  ccmtrive  to  make  a  land- 
ing ;  and  when  we  get  up  to  the  raft  we  discover  mutton 
instead  of  beef — about  one  hundred  carcasses,  covered 
with  the  pelts.  The  ravens  had  worked  underneath,  and 
were  having  it  all  their  own  way.  Mutton  suiting  us  as 
well  as  beef,  we  throw  a  carcass  into  the  boat  and  go  on. 
Soon  after  that    we  see   two  men  struggling  along  on 

i6y 


ill!! 


'J.: 


THE    K  L O N  D I K  K    S  T  A  M  P  R  D  E 


the  shore  -  ice,  each  (h'agf^iiij^  a  loaded  sled.  In  answer 
to  our  hail  they  call  out,  "  'Inhere  is  no  jjrub  in  Dawson. 
If  you  haven't  an  oulrtt,  for  God's  sake  turn  ri^ht  back 
where  you  are  !" 

Night  fallinji;,  we  make  out  to  get  ashore  where  three 
prospectors  are  camped,  who  belong  to  the  so-called 
"Christy"  party,  who  came  over  the  Skagway  trail.  With 
them,  as  we  saw  by  the  record  at  the  White  Horse,  was 
the  jVi'TC  York  Times  correspondent,  Pelletier.  The  rest 
of  the  party,  to  the  number  of  about  a  dozen,  including 
two  women,  at  last  account  were  on  an  island  above  in 
the  Yukon,  where  they  had  been  for  three  days,  since 
the  ice  began  to  run  hard,  the  women  wanting  to  go, 
but  the  prudent  leader,  with  a  wife  at  home,  not  consid- 
ering it  advisable  in  the  state  of  the  river. 

We  are  more  than  glad  to  hear  this,  as  they  left  Ben- 
nett a  week  ahead  of  us.  Again  ch((i)ping  a  dock  for  the 
boat  in  the  shore  -  ice,  which  is  widening  several  feet 
each  night,  we  make  camp  with  the  three  prospectors,  not 
putting  up  the  tent,  but  spreading  it  over  our  blankets. 
It  snowed  two  inches  during  the  night. 

October  25. 

Before  we  are  ready  to  start  the  "Christy"  boat  passes, 
and  the  prospectors  start  after  them.  By  keeping  in  the 
open  leads  and  rowing,  in  two  hours  we  overtake  them 
in  time  to  see  them  turn  in  and  land  on  the  right  bank, 
alongside  two  other  boats,  whose  occupants  are  eating 
and  at  the  same  time  trying  with  poles  to  keep  the  ice- 
floes from  crushing  them.  We  hail,  and  a  man  calls  out 
that  the  ice  has  jammed  at  the  mouth  of  White  River,  just 
below.  If  that  is  the  case,  there  is  but  one  thing  for  us  to 
do,  and  that  we  must  do  as  (juick  as  we  can.  We  gain  the 
shore-ice,  planning  to  drop  into  an  eddy,  in  a  bight  of 
the  shore-line  ;  but  we  are  caught  in  the  ice-floe,  miss  the 

170 


1  ■■ 


MOUTH    OF    S  T  Iv  W  A  R  T    1<  I  \'  K  R 

eddy,  and  the  next  moment  the  boat  is  jjjrindinii- aj^ainst 
the  face  of  tlie  ice,  which  by  the  falling  of  the  river  now 
stands  clear  of  the  water  by  several  inches.  A  particu- 
larly heavy  tloe  makes  for  the  boat,  and  the  force  of  the 
impact  tilts  the  boat  until  the  outer  ji;unwale  is  even  with 
the  water,  when  the  floe  sheers  off  just  when  we  think 
boat  and  goods  are  gone.  We  line  her  rapidly  down 
along  the  shore-ice  mitil,  seeing  that  heroic  measures 
only  will  save  the  little  boat,  we  await  an  opening  in  the 
ice,  turn  the  bow  out,  and  swing  clear  of  the  shore;  and 
then,  after  a  hard  fight,  gain  the  free  ice  in  mid-river, 
where  we  resolve,  by  all  that  is  fit  to  swear  by,  that 
we  will  stay,  jam  or  no  jam.  There  are  no  signs  of 
a  jam,  and  we  keep  on  past  White  River.  Ten  miles 
farther,  at  Stewart  River,  and  on  the  right,  we  see  a  line 
of  boats  drawn  out,  some  tents,  and  a  few  cabins,  and, 
starting  in  time,  we  work  in  and  make  a  landing  all 
right;  but  another  boat  ahead  of  us  fails  to  pursue  our 
tactics,  and  she  disappears  in  the  direction  of  Dawson. 

About  forty  boats  have  hauled  out  on  the  ice.  Stew- 
art River  is  the  destination  of  many  parties,  who  intend 
to  haul  their  outfits  up  on  the  ice  and  prospect  its  tribu- 
taries in  search  of  other  Bonanza  Creeks.  (Jthers  have 
stopped  from  fear  of  the  ice  ;  and  still  others  by  reason 
of  the  disquieting  news,  brought  by  parties  making  their 
way  out,  that  starvation  faces  the  camp  at  Dawson  and 
thieving  is  going  on,  two  men  already  having  been  shot 
for  breaking  into  caches. 

We  have  passed  or  overtaken  twenty-five  boats  since 
leaving  Tagish  Lake, 

October  26. 

Growing  warmer  :  twenty  degrees  above  zero  at  7  a.m.  ; 
forty  degrees  above  at  noon.  Start  at  2  i'.m.  with  a 
light  wind  and  snow  in  our  faces. 

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IMAGE  EVALUATION 
TEST  TARGET  (MT-3) 


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1.6 

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► 

Photographic 

Sciences 
Corporation 


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23  WEST  MAIN  STREET 

WEBSTER,  NY.  14580 

(716)  872-4503 


I 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

The  Yukon  just  below  the  mouth  of  the  Stewart  is  a 
maze  of  islands,  but  the  channels  are  now  clearly  marked 
by  the  ice,  caught  on  the  heads  of  islands  and  shoals. 
We  have  gone  about  five  miles,  and  in  the  growing  dark- 
ness it  becomes  difficult  to  see.  A  mass  of  ice  looms  up 
straight  ahead,  and  we  keep  to  the  left,  when  we  sud- 
denly discover  we  are  going  wrong,  and  turn  the  bow 
for  the  right-hand  channel,  Brown  throwing  his  whole 
strength  into  the  oars.  We  are  just  clearing  the  jam 
when  we  wedge  between  two  fioes.  The  ice  projects 
over,  and  destruction  is  inevitable.  Broadside  we  strike, 
and  then  the  cause  of  the  mishap  is  the  means  of  our 
salvation.  The  floe  on  the  lower  side  crushes,  but  the 
resistance  is  enough  to  sheer  us  off,  and  we  skim  by. 
Immediately  another  danj;er  confronts  us.  At  the  oppo- 
site bank,  some  long  spruce-trees,  undermined,  have  fallen 
into  the  water.  The  current  sets  directly  towards  them. 
Here,  again,  fortune  is  with  us,  for  had  we  passed  clear 
of  the  island  we  should  inevitably  have  been  carried  in 
the  ice-pack  full  into  the  sweepers  —  from  Scylla  upon 
Charybdis  —  and  we  should  have  been  raked  from  stem 
to  stern,  if  not  capsized.  As  it  is,  we  narrowly  miss  them, 
and  are  glad  to  land  just  below,  at  a  huge  pile  of  drift- 
wood. 

We  have  hardly  set  the  tent  up  when  we  hear  a 
cry,  and,  looking  up,  see  the  "Christy"  boat  drifting 
stern  foremost.  When  they  see  us  they  call  for  us  to 
take  a  line.  As  they  drop  down  a  rope  is  thrown  ashore 
and  we  make  it  fast.  It  seems  they  were  hugging  the 
shore,  as  usual,  and  went  fair  into  the  sweepers,  the  b(~>at 
stern  on  at  the  time.  All  hands  jumped  for  a  space 
among  the  packages  of  goods,  and  the  sweeper,  strik- 
ing the  steering-oar,  slid  up  and  swept  the  boat  clear. 
No  one  was  hurt  but  the  leader,  who  was  caught  by  a 

172 


up 
>ud- 


N EARING    DAWSON 

sweeper  and  rolled  over  once  or  twice,  and  is  lying  now, 
it  is  feared,  badly  hurt. 

We  subsequently  learn  that  this  is  a  very  bad  place, 
several  boats  having  been  caught  under  the  treacherous 
tree-ends.  In  all  its  phases  the  Yukon  is  a  river  that 
commands  respect. 

Next  day  we  meet  more  refugees  dragging  sleds.  One 
party  of  three,  reluctant  to  take  to  sleds,  are  dragging 


TRYINC  TO    I. AMI    AT    DAWSON 


a  Peterborough  canoe,  the  bow  of  which  is  sheathed  with 
tin  to  protect  it  from  the  ice.  We  ask  one  man  why  he 
didn't  wait  and  go  out  on  the  "  ice,"  for  we  still  have 
a  notion  the  river  freezes  smooth  like  a  mill-pond.  He 
answers  that  "a  man  doesn't  eat  any  more  grub  on  the 
trail  than  when  sitting  down  waiting." 

Presently  a  white  sign  with  large  letters,  on  the  shore, 
warns  to  "  Keep  to  the  left  side  of  the  island,"  which  is 
all  one  can  do  now,  as  the  right-hand  channel  is  packed 

^73 


:'i3 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

solid.  Then  we  pass  a  large  log  builcliiig,  formerly 
Ladue's  trading  -  post,  opposite  the  narrow  valley  of 
Sixty-Mile  River.  In  reply  to  our  hail  a  man  calls  out, 
"  Fifty-five  miles  to  Dawson  !  Keep  to  the  right,  and 
look  sharp,  or  you'll  be  carried  j)ast  !"  Thus  far,  di- 
rections volunteered  by  others  having  invariably  been 
misleading,  we  straightway  keep  to  the  left,  thereby  act- 
ing, as  subsequent  events  prove,  unwisely. 

We  camp  on  the  left-hand  bank,  and  next  morning  go 
on.  Long,  low,  wooded  islands  follow  one  another  in  quick 
succession.  We  are  repaid  once  ff)r  the  extreme  lone- 
liness by  sight  of  a  wolf,  a  (piarter  of  a  mile  away, 
trotting  towards  us  on  the  shore -ice,  which  is  several 
hundred  feet  wide.  After  making  sure  it  is  not  a  native 
dog,  we  level  with  the  30-30;  but  it  is  a  clean  miss,  and 
^he  wolf  starts  on  the  jump  for  cover,  the  rifie  cracking 
every  six  jumps.  Then  he  turns  around  for  a  last  look, 
just  as  a  bullet  kicks  the  snow  up  beneath  him  ;  then  he 
is  gone  into  the  brush. 

Night  finds  us  still  inside  the  islands,  just  above  a  sud- 
den bend  of  the  river  to  the  left.  Next  morning,  judg- 
ing that  we  have  only  about  ten  miles  to  go,  and  having 
found  some  dry  spruce  and  straight  white  birch,  we  re- 
solve to  stop  for  a  day  and  build  a  sled,  and  also  lighten 
the  boat,  which  is  so  weighted  with  ice  that  we  can  no 
longer  make  headway  or  work  our  way  among  the  fioes. 
The  ice  is  fcnir  inches  thick  on  the  sides  and  four  or  five 
inches  thick  in  the  bottom.  Oars,  paddles,  gunwales, 
canvas,  boxes,  and  bags  are  incrusted  with  ice.  When 
we  begin  digging,  picks  and  all  sorts  of  things  that  we 
have  forgotten  about  come  to  light.  The  following 
morning  we  reload,  and,  settling  ourselves  for  what  we 
suppose  to  be  about  half  a  day's  work,  push  off  once 
more  in  the  face  of  a  cutting  north  wind,  striking  im- 

174 


"THIS    IS     DAWSON!" 

mediately  for  the  right-hand  shore,  which  was,  indeed, 
fortunate  for  us,  for  just  at  the  turn,  a  mile  from  our 
cjimping- place,  we  see  on  the  bank  a  great  number  of 
boats,  tents,  and  people. 

"  How  far  is  it  to  Dawson  ?"  we  call  out. 

"  This  is  Dawson  !  If  you  don't  look  out  you  will  be 
carried  past  I"  We  dig  our  paddles  into  the  ice,  and  in 
a  short  space  of  time  our  boat  is  safe  behind  a  larger 
one.  It  is  the  31st  of  October,  one  hundred  antl  eight 
(lavs  since  the  lixcc/sior's  arrival  at  San  Francisco,  and 
ninety-two  days  since  we  joined  the  Khmdike  Stampede. 


ROAD-HOUSE,   NORTH    oK   HI  NKKR   CRKEK 


CHAPTER  IX 


Klondike  "City" — Dawson — First  Impressions  of  the  Camp — Tiie  Grub 

Scare,  and  Exodus 

MMEDIATELY  in  front  of  our  boat  we 
discover  the  tent  of  the  "  Christy  " 
party,  in  charge  of  Pelletier  and  two 
sailors  —  a  chuckle -headed  Dutchman 
and  a  Swede— who  gave  us  a  laugh  for 
hanging  up  around  the  corner  ;  but  they 
told  us  we  might  pile  our  goods  against 
the  side  of  their  tent  where  we  could  guard 
them  better,  and  then,  after  several  pairs  of 
willing  arms  helped  drag  our  little  boat  out  on  the  ice, 
we  began  to  inspect  our  new  surroundings.  Winter  had 
clearly  settled  down,  and  snow  covered  everything. 

The  bank,  whi^h  was  quite  level  and  stood  about 
Lwenty  feet  above  the  river,  was  several  acres  in  extent 
and  occupied  by  thirty  or  forty  log-cabins  and  tents,  to- 
gether with  many  curious  little  boxes,  made  of  poles,  or 
two  halves  of  boats  placed  one  above  the  other,  and  set 
on  posts  higher  than  one's  head  and  reached  by  ladders. 
These  latter,  which  are  almost  as  numerous  as  the  cab- 
ins, are  "caches,"  in  which  goods  are  stored  out  of  reach 
of  dogs  and  water.  Behind  the  flat  the  bank  rises  steeply 
to  a  high  terrace,  and  on  the  left  this  suddenly  ends  and 
the  Klondike  River  breaks  through  from  the  eastward, 
and,  dividing  into  two  shallow  channels,  enters  the  Yu- 

176  . 


KLONDIKE    "CITY" 

kon  around  a  low  island  covered  with  small  cottonwoods. 
The  aforementioned  assemblage  of  dwellings  was  not, 
as  we  had  been  led  at  first  to  sii[)pose,  Dawson  proper, 
but  a  flourishing  suburb,  bearing  the  official  name  of 
"Klondike  City."  This  "city"  was,  until  the  miners 
bringing  rafts  of  logs  down  the  Klondike  destroyed  their 


KLONUIKK  "  t  ITY  " — KI.UMUKK    KIVLK    LMKKS   ON    TUE    KIlMll' 

fish-weirs,  the  seat  of  the  local  Indians,  or  TrocJnitin,  as 
they  call  themselves.  But  whether  from  a  knowledge  of 
some  things  that  commonly  appertain  to  Indian  villages, 
or  whether  a  certain  half-fish-like  emblem  which  serves  as 
a  wind-vane  at  the  top  of  a  high  pole  on  the  river-bank, 
the  most  conspicuous  object  in  the  village,  is  thought  to 
resemble  a  certain  small  creature,  it  is  a  fact  that  it  is 
M  177. 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 


considered  by  old-timers  the  height  of  affectation  to  speak 
of  Dawson's  suburb  otherwise  than  as  "Lousetown." 

Lousetown  is  still  the  residence  of  Indians,  but  only 
of  such  as  are  the  wives  of  old-timers,  whose  little  half- 
breed  children  run  about  in  furs,  and  whose  dogs,  to  the 
number  of  four  or  six,  lie  around  the  door  of  their  cabins, 
in  their  thick  fur  oblivious  to  the  cold. 

Dawson  proper  lies  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  mouth 
of  the  Klondike,  upon  a  flat  about  two  thousand  yards  in 
width,  extending  a  mile  and  a  half  along  the  Yukon,  and 
terminating  in  a  narrow  point  at  the  base  of  a  mountain 
conspicuous  by  reason  of  a  light-gray  patch  of  "  slide  " 
upon  its  side  bearing  resemblance  to  a  dressed  moose-hide 
in  shape  and  color,  which  has  given  to  it  the  name  of 
"  Moose-hide  "  or  "  Moose-skin  "  Mountain.  The  greater 
part  of  this  flat  is  nothing  more  than  a  swamp,  or  "mus- 
keag,"  consisting  in  summer  of  oozy  muck,  water,  and 
"nigger-heads,"  with  a  few  stunted  spruce,  but  in  win- 
ter hard  and  dry. 

The  town  of  Dawson,  now  just  one  year  old,  contains 
about  three  hundred  cabins  and  other  buildings,  half  a 
dozen  of  which  stand  on  the  bank  of  the  Klondike.  Be- 
yond these,  and  facing  the  Yukon,  and  separated  from 
the  rest  of  the  flat  by  a  slough,  is  the  military  reserva- 
tion, with  the  barracks  of  the  mounted  police.  The  bar- 
racks, where  there  are  now  about  thirty  constables  under 
command  of  Inspector  C.  Constantine,  are  a  group  of 
eight  or  ten  log  buildings  for  officers'  and  men's  quarters, 
offices,  store-rooms,  post-office,  court-room,  etc.,  forming 
three  sides  of  a  square,  the  fourth  side,  facing  the  Yukon, 
being  at  present  enclosed  by  nothing  more  than  a  brush 
fence  four  feet  high,  with  a  gate,  beside  which  is  a  tall 
pole  floating  the  flag  of  Great  Britain. 

Beyond  the  reservation  is  a  town-site  staked  by  Arthur 

178 


THE    TOWN    OF    DAWSON 

Harper  in  the  spring  of  1S97,  and  next,  adjoining  is  the 
original  town  -  .>ite  of  Joe  Ladue,  staked  in  September, 
1896,  the  two  being  known  as  the  "IlarpertS:  Ladue 
Town-site  " — a  rectangle  of  over  one  hundred  and  sixty 
acres,  extending  from  river  to  hill.  The  first  houses 
were  built  here,  and  it  is  still  the  centre  of  the  towii, 


-'^■■i^'t^' 


'§ 


^ 


STREKT    IN    DAWSON 


which  was  surveyed  by  Mr.  Ogilvie  into  streets  running 
parallel  with  the  river,  intersected  at  longer  intervals  by 
cross  streets.  First,  or  Main,  Street,  the  one  skirting  the 
river,  sixty-six  feet  back  from  high-water,  is  practically 
the  only  one  used.  Along  this  street,  beginning  towards 
the  barracks,  the  buildings  consist,  first,  of  a  few  small 
earth-covered  log  dwellings ;  then  several  two-story  log 

179 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 


I 


buildings  designated  "hotels,"  with  conspicuous  signs 
in  front  bearing  such  names  as  "Klondike,"  "Dawson 
City,"  "Brewery,"  with  more  dwellings  between  them 
and  caches  behind  ;  then  more  large  houses — the  "  M.  & 
M."  saloon  and  dance- hall,  the  "(ireen  Tree"  hotel, 
the  "Pioneer"  or  "Moose-horn"  and  the  "Dominion" 
saloon,  the  "Palace"  saloon  and  restaurant  and  the 
"Opera-House,"  built  tolerably  close  together,  the  space 
between  being  filled  with  tents  and  smaller  cabins  used 
as  restaurants,  mining- brokers'  offices,  etc.  On  the 
river's  edge,  facing  this  irregular  row,  are  tents,  rough 
buildings  hastily  constructed  out  of  slabs,  scows  with 
tents  built  over  them  and  warmed  by  Yukon  stoves,  and 
used  as  offices  and  restaurants  or  residences,  etc.  —  a 
ragged,  motley  assemblage.  In  the  middle  of  the  road, 
and  evidently  built  there  before  the  town  was  surveyed, 
stands  a  cabin  with  one  window,  the  Ladue  cabin,  the  first 
built  in  Dawson,  and  now  used  as  a  bakery,  when  there  is 
anything  to  bake.* 

Beyond  the  saloons  is  the  block  of  the  Alaska  Com- 
mercial Company,  consisting  of  a  corner  store,  a  two- 
story  building,  forty  by  eighty  feet,  well  built  of  sawn 
logs,  beyond  which  are  three  long,  low  warehouses  of 
galvanized  corrugated  iron,  all  on  Main  Street;  and,  on  a 
side  street,  another  warehouse  and  the  "  mess-house  " — 
a  commodious  two-story  log  dwelling  for  the  employes. 
The  next  block  is  that  of  the  North  American  Trans- 
portation and  Trading  Company,  comprising  a  store- 
house similar  to  that  of  the  other,  three  corrugated  iron 
warehouses,  and  a  dwelling-house.     Beyond  this  is  a  saw- 

*This  landmark  was  torn  down  in  the  spring  of  1898.  This 
portion  of  town  between  the  "  M.  &  M."  and  the  stores  was  sub- 
sequently much  altered,  and,  later,  two  destructive  fires  have  wiped 
it  out  of  existence,  thus  destroying  almost  the  last  of  the  pioneer 
buildings. 

180 


AN    ANIMATED    SCENE 


mill,  owned  by  Harper  &  Lar'ue  ;  then  more  cabins,  and 
at  the  farther  end,  half  a  mile  from  the  stores,  the 
Catholic  church  and  vSt.  Mary's  Hospital,  in  charge  of 
Father  Judge,  of  the  Society  of  Jesuits,  and  the  Sisters 
of  St.  Ann. 

This,  in  brief,  was  the  construction  of  the  town  of  Daw- 
son on  October  2,  1897.  As  one  walked  for  the  Hrst  time 
down  the  smoothly  beaten  street,  it  was  an  animated 
scene,  and  one  upon  which  the  new-comer  gazed  with 
wonder.  The  Klondike  had  been  frozen  for  three  weeks. 
Snow  ankle-deep  lay  on  the  ground  and  on  the  roofs  of 
buildings.  Smoke  curled  upwards  from  bits  of  stove- 
pipe in  the  roofs  of  cabins  and  tents.  The  saloons  and 
stores  and  bit  of  sidewalk  were  thronged  with  men,  more 
than  half  of  whom  were  stamped  as  late  arrivals  by 
their  clothes  and  manner.  The  new-comers  were  mostly 
dressed  in  Mackinaws  with  heavy  cloth  caps,  but  old- 
timers  were  marked  usually  by  coats  of  deer-skin,  or 
the  more  typical  parka  of  striped  or  navy-bhie  twill,  with 
light  fur  caps  of  lynx,  sable,  mink,  or  beaver,  unlike  in 
shape  those  worn  anywhere  else,  and  big  blanket-lined  or 
fur-lined  moose-hide  mittens,  with  gauntlet  tops.  Men 
were  coming  and  going,  both  with  and  without  packs,  and 
now  and  then  a  woman,  in  deer-skin  coat  or  curiously 
fashioned  squaw's  parka  of  mink  or  squirrel  skins — all 
trotting  or  walking  with  an  energetic  stride,  probably 
begotten  no  less  of  the  sharp  temperature  than  of  the 
knowledge  that  the  darkness  of  Arctic  winter  was  fast 
settling  down.  Dogs,  both  native  and  "outside,"  lay 
about  the  street  under  every  one's  feet,  sleeping — as  if  it 
was  furthest  from  their  minds  that  any  one  should  hurt 
them  —  or  else  in  strings  of  two  to  ten  were  dragging 
prodigious  loads  of  bo.xes  or  sacks  intended  for  the  mines 
or  for  fuel,  urged  on  by  energetic  dog-punchers. 

181 


, 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

Prices  at  which  goods  were  selling  were  gathered  by 
jjKiuiry  and  from  bits  of  paper  posted  on  the  sides  of 
saloons  or  the  bulletin-boanl  at  the  Alaska  Commercial 
Company's  corner,  j'intii'-  <nitHts  were  for  sale  at  $i 
per  pound,  and  not  waiting  long  for  takers;  iMit  flour, 
the  article  of  which  there  was  the  greatest  shortage, 
sold  on  the  street  for  from  $75  to  $120  per  sack  of  ^o 
pounds.  Joe  Hrandt,  or  some  other  ecpially  reliable 
dog-driver,  is  to  start  for  Dyea  in  December  with  a  Wv  ii- 
e(pii[)pe(l  dog-team,  and  will  take  letters  at  $1  each,  and 
a  limited  number  of  passengers  at  from  $600  to  $1000, 
which  includes  the  privilege  of  walking  behind  the 
sleigh  and  helping  to  make  camj);  a  woman,  who  must 
ride,  pays  $1500.  This  was  almost  as  cheap  as  to  buy 
and  e(piip  a  team.  Dogs  were  almost  any  price  a 
man  asked,  $300  being  paid  for  good  native  dogs.  A 
common  Yukon  sleigh,  worth  $7  outside,  was  $40;  a 
"basket"  s!.  gh,  $75.  Fur  robes,  without  which  it  was 
said  no  man  could  reach  Dyea,  were  from  $200  to  $400 
each.  The  stores  were  full  of  men  warming  themselves 
by  the  stoves  and  appearing  to  have  nothing  to  do.  The 
stock  of  goods  was  of  course  considerably  larger  than 
at  Selkirk,  but  there  were  whole  rows  of  empty  shelves 
where  groceries  should  have  been.  The  Alaska  Com- 
mercial Company  was  selling  axe -handles  and  sugar, 
that's  about  all.  The  North  American  Transportation 
Company  was  doing  somewhat  better.  The  warehouses, 
however,  looked  full,  and  men  in  parkas  with  dog-teams 
were  sledding  stuff  away  from  piles  marked  with  their 
names  ;  but  every  one  else  was  growling  and  cursing 
this  or  that  man  whom  he  thought  responsible  for  the 
shortage,  or  was  anxiously  watching  developments.  It 
was  certain  that  between  five  and  six  hundred  persons 
had  been  forced  down  river,  where  the  nearest  supply  of 

183 


DESTITUTION    AT    DAWSON 

grub  was  said  to  be;  several  score  had  started  up  river 
ill  canoes  or  alonj;!;  the  shoie-iee,  and  no  one  knew  how 
many  were  only  waiii'  for  the  river  to  close  to  start 
up  river.  To  ^o  cither  >  ly  at  this  time,  the  old-timers 
regarded  as  certain  deutii,  by  the  ice  in  one  direction, 


HAUMNC,   WATER— SCKNK   ON   TIIK   MAIN    STREET,   DAWSON 


from  cold  or  starvation  in  the  other,  unless  help  reached 
them  on  t^e  trail. 

The  immediate  cause  of  this  indeed  serious  condition 
was,  as  before  stated,  the  failure  of  three  steamers,  loaded 
with  suj)plies  from  St.  Michael,  to  pass  the  Hats  of  the  Yu- 
kon, 200  miles  and  more  below  Dawson.  But  that  was  not 
all.  The  strike  on  Bonanza  Creek,  which  depopulated  Cir- 
cle City  and  Forty-Mile,  occurred  so  late  in  the  fall  that 
steamers  could  not  land  supplies  at  the  new  camp,  and 

183 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 


•   i 


il! 


I' 


during  the  winter  which  followed'  the  miners  lived  from 
hand  to  mouth  on  what  was  hauled  by  dogs  over  the  ice, 
a  distance  respectively  of  220  and  55  miles.  The  spring 
found  1500  people  awaiting  the  arrival  of  the  boats  with 
an  eagerness  with  which  the  Yukon  was  by  no  means  un- 
acquainted. Then,  too,  the  news  of  the  strike  had  gone 
outside  in  January  and  February,  was  common  property 
in  Juneau,  Seattle, Chicago,  and  San  Francisco  for  several 
months  before  the  Excelsior  and  Portland  arrived  with 
the  first  gold  of  the  wash-up  and  tangible  evidence  of 
the  magnitude  of  the  strike,  and  before  the  world  at 
large  knew  of  even  the  existence  of  Klondike  a  stream 
of  people  were  pouring  over  the  passes,  and,  when  the 
river  opened  in  May,  they  bore  down  on  Dawson.  The 
influx  had  been  anticipated  by  the  two  companies  which 
supply  the  Yukon  by  way  of  St.  Michael,  and  every  effort 
was  made  to  push  supplies  to  the  new  camp.  Of  the 
Alaska  Commercial  Company's  steamers,  the  Bella  made 
four  trips  to  Dawson,  the  Alice  three,  and  the  Margaret 
one.  Of  those  of  the  North  American  Transportation 
and  Trading  Company,  the  Portus  B.  IVeare  delivered 
four  loads,  the  /olin  J.  Hcaly  two,  while  the  Hamilton 
was  expected  on  her  maiden  trip.  By  the  middle  of 
September  about  800  tons  of  freight  had  been  landed  at 
Dawson,  of  which  about  one-half  was  food  and  one-half 
general  merchandise,  an  amount  which,  although  with 
none  to  spare,  might  have  sufficed  for  the  needs  of  the 
camp  until  the  next  spring  had  there  been  no  additions 
to  the  population.  Two  hundred  passengers  reached 
Dawson  on  the  first  steamers  up-river,  and  a  few  went 
out.  By  the  1st  of  August  no  fewer  than  a  thousand  had 
come  in  over  the  passes.  Some  of  these  had  complete  out- 
fits, but  the  greater  number,  which  included  many  women 
and  some  children,  had  insufficient  to  last  until  spring. 

184 


D I  S  T  R  I  B  U  T  I  N  G    F  O  O  D  . 

Captain  J.  E.  Hansen,  assistant  superintendent  of  the 
Alaska  Commercial  Company,  arrived  from  below  on  the 
first  trip  of  the  Bella.     Captain  John  J.  Healy,  general 
manager,  as  well  as  a  member  of  the  firm  of  the  North 
American   Transportation   and   Trading   Company,  ar- 
rived from  Forty  -  Mile  on  the  first  trip  of  the  Wearc. 
Both  began  distributing  supplies.  Captain  Hansen  in  the 
old  Ladue  cabin.  Captain  Healy  on  a  rough  platform  in 
the  mud  of  Front  Street,  no  person,  however,  receiving 
more  than  two  weeks'  supply  at  a  time.    According  to 
custom,  lists  were  posted  and  orders  taken  for  a  year's 
supplies,  accompanied  by  a  deposit  of  about  half  the  cost. 
Such  individual  orders  ranged  from  $500  to  $10,000  each, 
and,  although  subject  to  the  uncertainty  of  delivery,  were 
termed  "  guaranteed."     It  was  the  custom,  when  orders 
were   so  placed,  for   the  goods   as  they  arrived   to   be 
stacked  each  man's  in  a  pile  by  itself  in  the  warehouse, 
to  be  called  for  only  as  needed  (the  goods  being  consid- 
ered safer  there  than  in  their  own  caches),  until  snow- 
fall, when  they  were  more  easily  removed.     The  anxiety 
of  the  agents  and  those  who  had  placed  orders  increased 
as  they  saw  the  incoming  horde  of  new-comers  and  the 
water  in  the  Yukon  rapidly  falling.     Navigation  would 
close  by  the  ist  of  October.     When  the  middle  of  Sep- 
tember came    and  the   river  was   still  falling.  Captain 
Hansen  went  down  on  the  Margaret  to  Fort  Yukon.    On 
the  26th  he  returned  by  poling  boat,  bringing  word  that 
the  Alice,  Healy,  and  Hamilton  were  unable  to  pass  the 
treacherous  shoals  in  that    part  of   the    river,  and   no 
more  boats  would  be  able  to  get  up.     The  news  was  car- 
ried to  the  gulches,  and  hundreds  of  men  came  to  town 
to  learn  if  it  were  true.     The  Alaska  Commercial  Com- 
pany posted  notice  that  they  could  fill  all  orders,  except 
a  slight  shortage  in  flour,  candles,  etc.     Captain  Healy, 

.85 


'^li 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 


I' 'I 


who  is  generally  thought  to  have  had  the  bulk  of  the  or- 
ders, advised  his  customers  not  to  be  uneasy,  that  the 
boats  would  arrive.  Excited  men  gathered  in  groups  on 
the  streets  and  in  the  saloons,  and  with  gloomy  faces  dis- 
cussed the  situation.  Some  proposed  seizing  the  ware- 
houses and  dividing  the  food  evenly  among  yll  in  camp. 
The  police,  numbering  only  about  twenty  men,  under 


ALASKA  COMMERCIAL  COMPANY'S  STORE  AND  WAREHOUSES,  WITH  THE 
NORTH  AMERICAN  TRANSPORTATION  AM)  TRADING  COMPANY'S  STORES 
IN    THE    DISIANCE 

command  of  Sergeant-Major  Davis  (Captain  Constantine 
being  at  Forty-Mile),  were  placed  at  the  companies'  dis- 
posal. Captain  Hansen  accepted  the  offer  and  barri- 
caded his  warehouse,  but  Captain  Healy  declined.  In 
this  crisis — namely,  on  the  28th  of  September — the  Wcare 
arrived  with  125  tons  of  freight,  mostly  provisions;  also 
reporting  20  tons  taken  off  in  a  hold-up  by  the  miners 
at   Circle   City.     The  excitement   subsided   a   little   at 

186 


FEAR    OF    STARVATION 

the  Wean's  unexpected  arrival,  and  hundreds  who  were 
starting  down-river  delayed  their  departure.  On  the  30th 
the  Bc//a  arrived  with  a  light  cargo,  having  left  her  barge 
at  Fort  Yukon,  and  been  further  relieved  of  about  37  tons 
at  Circle  City.  Captain  Constantine  arrived  on  the  In'//a, 
and  on  the  same  day  the  following  notice  was  posted  : 

"  The  undersigned,  officials  of  the  Canadian  Government,  hav- 
ing carefully  looked  over  the  present  distressing  situation  in  re- 
gard to  the  supply  uf  food  for  the  winter,  find  that  the  stock  on 
hand  is  not  sufBcient  to  meet  the  wants  of  the  people  now  in  the 
district,  and  can  see  but  one  way  out  of  the  difficulty,  and  that  is 
an  immediate  move  down-river  of  all  those  who  are  now  unsup- 
plied  to  Fort  Yukon,  where  there  is  a  large  stock  of  provisions. 
In  a  few  days  the  river  will  be  closed,  and  the  move  must  be  made 
now,  if  at  all.  It  is  absolutely  hazardous  to  build  hopes  upon 
the  arrival  of  other  boats.  It  is  almost  beyond  a  possibility  that 
any  more  food  will  come  into  this  district.  For  those  who  have 
not  laid  in  a  winter's  supply  to  remain  here  longer  is  to  court 
death  from  starvation,  or  at  least  a  certainty  of  sickness  from 
scurvy  and  other  troubles.  Starvation  now  stares  every  one  in 
the  face  who  is  hoping  and  waiting  for  outside  relief.  Little 
eflort  and  trivial  cost  will  place  them  in  comfort  and  safety  with- 
in a  few  days  at  Fort  Yukon,  or  at  other  points  below  where 
there  are  now  large  stocks  of  food. 

"C.  Constantine, 
"  Inspector  Northwestern  Mounted  Police. 

"  D.  W.  Davis, 

"  Collector  of  Customs. 

"  Thomas  Fawcett, 

"  Gold  Commissioner. 
"  Scptcmbc:  30,  1897." 

The  posting  of  the  notice  was  followed  by  speeches  by 
the  authorities  —  Sergeant  -  Major  Davis  and  Mr.  Faw- 
t.r.tt— urging  the  people  to  go.  Captain  Hansen  went 
about  the  street  speaking  in  twenty  places  to  as  many 

187 


i! 


1 


:i 


'11 

ii  .1  < 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

groups  of  men,  telling  them,  "Go!  go!  Flee  for  your 
lives  !"  and  to  the  men  on  the  river-front,  "Do  you  ex- 
pect to  catch  grayling  all  winter?"  He  was  greatly  agi- 
tated, and  the  excitement  was  intense. 

A  meeting  of  the  miners  was  held,  and  the  views  of  the 
agents  of  the  companies  called  for.  Captain  Healy  alone 
vigorously  opposed  the  down-river  movement  and  re- 
fused to  attend,  but  sent  his  views  by  a  committeeman, 
who  delivered  them  to  the  meeting.  He  stated  that 
there  was  plenty  of  food  for  all  in  the  camp  until  the 
boats  got  up  in  the  spring.  If  they  felt  they  must  go, 
they  should  not  go  to  Fort  Yukon,  where  there  was  very 
little,  but  outside,  where  there  was  sure  to  be  enough. 
In  any  event,  there  would  be  no  trouble  before  spring ; 
they  should  wait  and  see,  and  it  would  be  easier  and 
safer  to  go  out  later  than  to  go  to  Fort  Yukon  now.* 


*  Captain  Healy,  whose  attitude  towards  the  miners  has  been 
misunderstood  when  not  maliciously  misrepresented,  subsequent- 
ly made  to  me  this  statement :  "  I  sent  for  Captain  Hansen,  and 
I  said  to  him — for  he  was  very  well  supplied  with  flour,  more 
than  he  needed  ;  he  had  a  quantity  in  the  warehouse,  and  the 
Bella  brought  thirteen  hundred  gunnies  fa  gunny  holds  two  fifty- 
pound  sacks  of  flour] — I  said  to  him  :  '  I  have  everything  but  flour. 
If  you  will  let  me  have  flour,  I  can  let  you  have  bacon,  sugar,  ev- 
erything else.  Now  I  have  one-year  orders  for  from  $5co  to  $io,- 
ooo;  you  have  the  same.  My  proposition  is  this,  to  fill  every 
man's  order  as  nearly  as  possible,  but  to  cut  them  down  from 
twelve  to  eight  months.  That  will  last  them  till  June.  But  you 
must  let  me  have  flour.  There  will  be  no  starvation.  Some  may 
go  hungry,  but  no  one  will  starve.  If  there  is  starvation,  it  will 
not  be  till  spring.  It  is  not  a  question  of  quantity,  it  is  a  ques- 
tion of  distribution.  If  there  is  trouble,  as  you  say  there  will  be, 
before  any  one  starves  those  who  have  none  will  take  it  from 
those  who  have.  My  proposition  is  that  you  let  me  have  flour 
enough  to  fill  my  orders  and  that  we  both  cut  down  our  orders 
from  twelve  months  to  eight ;  for  if  there  is  going  to  be  trouble 
at  all,  it  is  better  that  we  take  the  matter  into  our  own  hands 
right  now.' " 

The  reply  of  Captain  Hansen  was,  according  to  Captain  Healy, 
"  I  must  fill  my  orders." 

i88 


I 


PEOPLE    URGED   TO    LEAVE    DAWSON' 

The  authorities  proposed  deporting  the  '  non  -  pro- 
ducers," rounders,  and  crooks,  which  Captain  Healy 
again  emphatically  opposed,  saying  that  the  crooks  should 
be  kept  where  the  police  could  watch  them,  instead  of 
being  turned  loose  in  a  defenceless  country  to  pillage 
and  rob. 

On  the  2oth  of  October  fifty  or  more  men  left  for 
Fort  Yukon  in  small  boats  and  scows.  The  Wcarc  un- 
loaded with  all  haste  and  took  as  many  as  she  could  find 
accommodation  for,  charging  $50  for  passage.  On  the 
2ist  of  October  the  Bella  was  advertised  to  depart,  and 
passage  was  offered  free,  by  arrangement  with  the  au- 
thorities. At  ten  o'clock  that  morning  there  was  a  mass- 
meeting  in  front  of  the  Alaska  Commercial  Company's 
store ;  addresses  were  made  urging  the  people  to  go. 
For  all  who  wanted  to  go  on  the  Bella  an  a^jreement  had 
been  prepared  for  them  to  sign,  as  follows  : 

"  Dawson,  Northwkst  Territory,  October  i,  1897. 
"The  officials  of  the  Government  of  the  Dominion  of  Canada 
have  arranged  to  have  all  persons  not  provided  with  food  for  the 
winter  carried  free  of  charge  to  Fort  Yukon  on  the  steamer  Bella, 
on  the  following  conditions:  That  the  steamer  Bellas  officers  or 
owners  are  not  to  be  held  responsible  for  any  delays  or  possible 
non-arrival  at  destination  of  any  passengers  or  property  carried  ; 
that  all  persons  carried  agree  to  cut  wood,  or  in  any  other  manner 
'  aid  in  furthering  said  steamer's  voyage,  as  they  may  be  called  upon 
to  do  by  the  captain  ;  that  the  undersigned  specially  agree  that 
if  the  ice  runs  so  thick  as  to  endanger  the  steamer,  and  she  goes 
into  harbor  between  Dawson,  Northwest  Territory,  and  Fort  Yu- 
kon, Alaska,  they  will  leave  the  steamer  at  the  request  of  the 
master,  E.  D.  Dixon." 

One  hundred  and  sixty  persons  took  advantage  of  this 

offer  and  signed  the  paper,  and  received  food  for  five 

days. 

189 


i 


I  m 


I 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

Both  the  Wcare  and  the  Bella,  the  latter  after  a  most 
perilous  trip,  we  subsequently  learned,  reached  Circle 
City,  where  the  captains  refused  to  go  farther,  on  account 
of  the  dangers  of  the  ice.  Eighty  of  the  IVcarcs  passen- 
gers kept  on  in  small  boats,  but  were  caught  in  an  ice- 
jam,  and,  after  being  for  three  days  without  food,  reached 
Fort  Yukon  afoot.  Contrary  to  the  statements  of  the 
authorities  that  there  was  sufficient  food  at  Fort  Yukon, 
there  was  not ;  and  if  all  whom  the  authorities  would 
have  persuaded  to  go  to  Fort  Yukon  had  reached  there, 
the  condition  there  would  have  been  much  more  serious 
than  at  Dawson.  In  all  several  hundred  destitute  men 
reached  Fort  Yukon,  and  a  few  continued  on  to  the  next 
post,  Fort  Hamlin.  It  had  been  represented  at  Dawson 
that  work  would  be  supplied  at  Fort  Yukon.  The  agents 
of  the  Alaska  Commercial  Company  were  doling  out  ten- 
day  outfits,  and  the  men  were  cutting  wood  for  pay, 
when  seventy  or  eighty  of  them,  chafing  at  the  thought 
of  practically  losing  the  winter,  made  request  for  a  seven- 
months'  outfit  so  they  could  prospect  neighboring  streams, 
and  were  about  to  enforce  their  demand.  Captain  P.  H. 
Ray  and  Lieutenant  Richardson,  United  States  Army, 
happened  to  be  at  Fort  Yukon  upon  a  military  recon- 
naissance, having  arrived  on  the  Hcaly.  Lieutenant 
Richardson  was  at  the  Alaska  Commercial  Company's 
cache,  where  the  miners  were  assembled.  A  committee 
of  one  was  sent  by  the  miners  to  Captain  Ray,  to  learn,  as 
the  miners  expressed  it,  whether  Captain  Ray  was  "rep- 
resenting a  government  that  would  care  for  its  people 
in  n^'3d,or  represented  the  companies."  The  committee 
met  Captain  Ray  on  his  way  from  the  North  American 
Transportation  Company's  store  (which  is  two  miles 
from  the  other),  and  as  a  result  of  this  interview  Cap- 
tain Ray  returned,  gathered  a  posse,  and  started  back. 

190 


"HOLD-UP"    AT    CIRCLE    CITY 


Ti:i 


Lieutenant  Richardson  was  then  "holding  the  fort," 
with  a  revolver  in  each  hand.  Captain  Ray  was  met  part 
way  by  the  body  of  miners,  who  drew  a  dead-line  in  the 
snow  across  the  path  and  ordered  him  to  halt.  A  big  fel- 
low belonging  to  the  posse  (a  Canadian  from  Victoria, 
named  Todd)  stepped  across  the  line,  when  the  miners 
levelled  their  guns  and  the  man  stepped  back.  The  posse 
had  at  first  been  ordered  to  arm,  but  the  order  had  been 
rescinded,  so  they  had  no  alternative  but  to  agree  to  the 
miners'  terms.  A  committee  of  seven  was  appointed  to 
pass  upon  the  claims  of  destitutes.  Their  methods,  how- 
ever, proving  too  lax,  Captain  Ray  took  charge,  hoisted 
the  United  Stated  flag,  and  issued  seven-months'  outfits 
to  destitutes,  taking  their  notes  for  one  year,  the  gov- 
ernment guaranteeing  payment  to  the  companies.  Some 
went  prospecting,  others  continued  to  chop  wood.  There 
may  have  been  some  rough  men  in  the  crowd,  and  it  has 
even  been  reported  that  they  were  simply  a  mob  trying 
to  loot  and  steal,  because  it  was  shown  that  one  of  the 
leaders  was  not  wholly  destitute  ;  but  it  was  certainly 
not  true  of  them,  as  a  whole,  and  they  acted  as  any 
other  men  would  have  acted  under  the  same  circum- 
stances. 

The  "hold-up  "of  the  steamers  at  Circle  City  took 
place  as  follows  :  The  companies,  in  their  endeavors  to 
supply  Dawson,  had  left  Circle  City,  eighty-three  miles 
from  Fort  Yukon,  unsupplied.  The  miners,  incensed  at 
this  arbitrary  action  of  the  companies,  took  an  inven- 
tory of  the  goods  in  the  two  stores  and  a  census  of 
those  without  outfits,  made  a  list  of  supplies  needed, 
and  appointed  a  committee  to  demand  that  goods 
as  per  list  be  left  oft'  the  next  steamer  that  arrived. 
When  the  IVcarc  arrived,  the  committee,  armed  with 
Winchester  rifles,  demanded  a  certain  quantity  of  goods, 

191 


m 


■A 


^■Pl 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 


and  they  were  taken  out  of  the  hold  and  placed  in  ware- 
house, the  miners  appointing  a  checker  on  the  steamer, 
another  at  the  warehouse,  and  guards  along  the  way, 
and,  further,  placed  guards  on  the  steamer  to  prevent 
disorder.  When  the  Bella  arrived,  the  same  thing  was 
repeated.  The  miners  placed  their  orders  at  the  store 
in  the  usual  way,  paid  their  money,  and  received  their 
outfits  from  the  agents  of  the  companies.  This,  too, 
was  an  orderly  procedure,  although  it  was  not  done 
without  a  vigorous  protest  from  Captain  Ray,  who  was 
on  the  Bella,  and  in  an  impassioned  speech  warned  the 
miners  that  it  was  both  wrong  and  dangerous  to  thus 
hold  up  the  steamer ;  first,  because  it  was  needed  worse 
at  Dawson  than  at  Circle  City,  and,  second,  there  were, 
no  doubt,  rough  men  in  the  camp,  who,  when  they  saw 
how  easy  it  was  to  hold  up  a  steamer  with  food  consigned 
to  Dawson,  would  hold  up  the  same  steamer  when  re- 
turning with  gold  consigned  to  Seattle. 

Of  all  who  started  for  Dawson  by  St.  Michael  after  the 
gold  arrived  outside,  a  number  estimated  at  1800,  exactly 
43  reached  Dawson,  and  of  these  upwards  of  35,  having 
no  outfits,  were  compelled  to  return  on  the  Bella  and 
IVearc.  The  rest  of  the  unfortunates,  such  as  reached 
St.  Michael,  were  scattered  at  various  points  along  the 
Yukon,  with  both  the  regular  and  specially  chartered 
steamers,  only  one  of  which  latter,  the  St.  Michael,  pur- 
chased at  St.  Michael  by  60  North  American  Trading 
and  Transportation  Company's  passengers,  reached  even 
Circle  City.  The  majority,  numbering  about  500,  settled 
for  the  winter  at  Rampart  City,  near  Minook  Creek, 
about  1200  miles  from  St.  Michael. 

192 


CHAPTER   X 

Cliiiosiiif;   a   Cahin-Silc  —  'Vhv    Kiver   Closes — Narrow  Kscapes  in    llie 
Ice — A  Typical  Miner's  Cal)in — ilouse-iJuiKlir.L;  in  Zero  Weallicr — 
How  Cold  will  it  be? — The  IJonanza  Trail 

ineffectual  attempt  to  find  the 
owner  of  the  mutton  raft  (we 
found  his  assistant  at  the  North 
M-ican  Transportation  Company's 
selling  the  cargo  of  an  earlier 
and  more  fortunate  raft  at  $1.50  per 
pound),  and  an  equally  fruitless  inquiry  for  letters  at  the 
post-office,  together  with  such  impressions  of  the  new 
place  as  we  absorbed  on  the  way  thither,  on  the  morn- 
ing after  our  arrival  at  Klondike  City,  comprised  our  ex- 
perience in  Dawson  for  several  days,  during  which  we 
gave  ourselves  over  to  the  serious  business  of  finding 
shelter  for  the  winter.  Cabins  in  Dawson  were  worth 
from  $500  to  $1000,  and  wood  for  fuel — an  important  item 
— was  $^0  to  ;|4o  a  cord.  Even  had  the  cost  been  less,  we 
should  not  have  thought  of  buying  a  house,  when  timber 
with  which  we  could  build  one  of  our  own  was  to  be  found 
so  near  to  town  ;  but  my  companion,  whose  rest)lution  thus 
far  had  been  to  die  sooner  than  to  return  home,  certainly 
could  not  remain  long  in  the  face  of  starvation.  In  this 
juncture,  Pelletier  proposed  that  we  build  together,  and 
next  morning  we  set  off  to  look  for  a  cabin-site  up  a  beaten 
path  that  we  were  told  led  to  the  mines,  it  being  agreed  in 
N  193 


hfi 


'  ^ 


! 


.    THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

the  meantime  that  Brown  should  remain  a  while  longer, 
in  the  hope  of  something  turning  up  to  relieve  his  dis- 
tressful condition. 

The  Klondike  River  is  a  shallow,  very  swift  stream,  in 
summer  averaging  in  width  about  forty  yards  ;  hut  the 
valley  is  much  wider,  varying,  in  the  first  mile  from  its 
mouth,  from  an  eighth  to  a  third  f)f  a  mile,  then  increas- 
ing to  a  mile  in  width,  with  broad,  low  banks  and  numer- 


THE   KLONDIKF'.    IN    SI'MMKR,   LOOKING   UP   FROM   TIIK    Yl'KON 


ous  islands,  the  banks  rising  first  at  forty-five  degrees, 
then  swinging  back  a  mile  or  more  to  the  crests  of  the 
hills  and  ridges,  the  bottoms  being  covered  densely  with 
spruces,  cottonwoods,  and  white  birches,  all  above  the 
level  being  covered  with  stunted  growth  of  spruce  and 
cottonwoods,  the  highest  peaks  being  nearly  or  quite 
bare.  Two  miles  from  the  mouth  the  valley  is  cut  by  a 
V-shaped  trench  from  the  southward — the  valley  of  Bo- 
nanza Creek.     The  trail,  worn  smooth  as  glass  by  many 

194 


CHOUSING    A    CAIUX    SITE 

sleds,  follows  the  frozen  surface  of  the  river,  past  a  little 
nest  of  cabins  on  the  right  known  as  the  Portland  Ad- 
dition, past  a  small  steam  saw-mill  just  ready  for  winter 
work,  for  two  miles,  when  it  leaves  the  river  and  crosses 
the  level  flat,  through  an  extensive  thicket  of  beautiful 
white  birches,  striking  at  a  distance  of  half  a  mile  tin- 
bed  of  the  creek,  a  shallow,  narrow  depression  winding 
from  side  to  side  of  a  wooded  valley  five  to  eight  hun- 
dred feet  a"ross,  and  then  continues  f)n  towards  the  heart 
of  the  mines,  a  distance  of  about  twelve  miles.  Where 
trail  and  creek  meet,  in  a  sheltered  spot  where  spruces 
and  birches  grew  thicker  than  usual,  we  chose  the  site 
of  our  cabin. 

A  blaze  on  a  tree,  bearing  the  number  97  A,  written  in 
pencil,  and  the  formal  statement  that  one  Max  Newberry 
claimed  five  hundred  feet  for  mining  purposes,  was  in- 
dication that,  as  claims  are  measured  on  this  creek,  we 
were  about  ninety-seven  claims,  of  about  five  hundred 
feet  each,  below  the  original  discovery  claim. 

Returning  to  the  Yukon,  we  found  our  cache  rifled  of 
the  mutton,  with  the  knowledge,  as  was  frankly  admitted, 
of  the  Swede  and  Dutchman,  aided  and  abetted  by  a  man 
in  a  yellow  sheepskin  cap  living  in  a  boat  on  the  river- 
bank;  the  statement  being  soberly  made  and  maintained 
that  the  owner  of  the  mutton-raft  had  been  making  in- 
quiries about  boats  with  mutton  aboard,  and  they,  be- 
coming alarmed,  had  thrown  my  mutton  into  the  river! 
A  likely  story — disproved  sometime  after  by  the  owner 
himself,  whose  only  regret  was  that  we  hadn't  brought 
it  all  down,  and  by  the  confession  of  one  of  the  tw<' 
custodians,  that  it  was  taken  by  our  friend  in  the  boat, 
who  had  been  left  in  a  pitiable  condition  by  his  j)art 
ners,  the  boat  and  contents  being  subsequently  lost  when 
the  river  closed. 

19s 


:    ^1 


'    i*i 


Til  I-:    KLONDIKE    S  T  A  M  I'  K  I)  E 


Mr.  W.  F.  Courtney,  known  in  the  camp  as  the  "  mutton 
man,"  charjjfcd,  as  we  expected,  only  half  the  market  price 
— namely,  75  cents  per  pound,  but  this  act  of  a  man  faciujjj 
starvation  left  us,  with  the  winter  before  us,  without  fresh 
meat  nor  a  dollar  in  our  pockets  for  some  time  to  come. 

Durinj^j  the  next  three  or  four  days  we  shnlded  our 
stutr  to  Bonanza  Creek,  but  slept  each  ni.nht  in  the  tent 
by  the  river.  On  the  4th  of  October,  Simpson  and  his 
600  pounds  of  news[)apers,  now  considerably  out  of  date, 
arrived,  the  canvas  canoe,  incrusted  with  ic(^,  beinj^ 
towed  behind  a  Yukon  boat.  A  few  more  boats  got 
in,  lighting  their  way  in  the  ice.  On  the  night  of  the 
6th  a  diversion  was  created  at  2  A.i^r.,  when  a  meat-raft 
went  by,  the  men  calling  loudly  and  offering  a  thou- 
sand dollars  for  a  line,  but  they  went  on  in  the  dark- 
ness, to  certain  destruction,  it  seemed,  in  the  gorge 
below  town.  Next  day  two  men,  arriving  on  f(jot  from 
above,  reported  at  the  barracks  that  they  had  gone 
ashore  from  the  raft  with  the  line  to  "snub"  to  a  tree, 
and  the  line  had  parted.  On  the  7th,  in  front  of  Daw- 
son, where  the  river  is  narrowest,  the  ice  began  to  jam. 
The  floes  piled  up,  and  the  water  backed  behind  as  far 
as  Klondike  Citv  ;  then  it  broke  loose  and  continued 
to  run  again  for  several  hours,  when  it  jammed  again 
and  did  not  move.  The  Yukon  was  closed,  but  remained 
oi>en  below  the  jam  all  winter.  Blocks  of  ice  lay  at  all 
angles,  with  boats  crushed,  sideways  and  endways,  use- 
less except  for  lumber.  The  last  men  in  had  the  time 
of  their  lives.  Messrs.  Coe  and  Racer,  of  Seattle,  picked 
up  at  Sixty-iMile  post  three  others.  Black,  Atkinson,  and 
Adams,  whose  party  had  divided  there,  fearing  the  ice. 
All  went  well  until  they  ap[)roached  Klondike  City.  The 
river  hi^d  just  jammed  for  the  second  time.  Black  and 
Atkinson  went  ashore  on  a  shelf  of  shore-ice  on  the  right 

1 96 


A    T  V  1"  C  A  J.    M  I  X  !•:  R  •  S    C  i\  1 1  I  X 


hand,  at  the  fool  <>f  a  precipitous  hank.  IMack  reachi'd 
the  caljins,  hut  tiic  risinj;-  water  (h'ove  Atkinson  to  the 
hank,  where  lie  managed  to  eUn^,  witii  one  foot  in  a 
small  spruce,  until  twi-nty  men  with  ropes  hauled  hiin 
up.  The  boat  went  on,  very  slowly  now.  It  was  in  the 
small  hours  of  night  when  they  reached  Dawson,  and 
stopped.  They  called  out  their  names,  but  no  help 
could  reach  them  until  <Uiyliij;ht,  when  tb.e  polici;  put 
planks  over  the  ice  and  brought  them  ashore.  'I'liis 
was  but  one  of  many  miracidous  escapes.  Near  Little 
Salmon,  the  boats  of  incoming  government  oiricials  were 
caught;  three  boats  went  under  the  ice,  and  one  man 
was  drowne<l,  the  rest  getting  ashore  on  snow-shoes. 
The  meat-raft,  which  was  William  Perdue's,  turned  up 
safe,  fourteen  miles  below,  and  he  lost  only  the  cost  of 
freighting  (25  cents  a  pound).  It  was  said  that  an  arm 
gras[)ing  an  oar  was  seen  going  slow  ly  by  in  the  ice,  but 
it  was  noV  generally  believed. 

The  Yukon  miner's  cabin  is  from  about  10  by  12  ft. 
S(piare,  to  14  by  iS  ft.,  averaging  perhaps  12  by  14  feet. 
The  logs  are  eight  or  nine  inches  thick,  and  the  sides 
are  nine  or  ten  log.i  high,  v.liich,  with  six  inches'  eleva- 
tion for  the  floor,  allows  ample  head-room.  The  roof  i:; 
rather  flat,  a  raise  of  more  than  two  feet  at  the  ridge 
being  unc(jmmon,  and  it  extends  four  to  six  feet  in  front 
and  is  frecpicntly  enclosed  for  a  store-room.  The  roof  is 
made  of  small  poles,  covered  first  with  moss,  and  then,  to 
a  thickness  of  six  inches  or  more,  with  dirt,  which  in  time 
is  covered  with  weeds  and  grass,  causing  some  one  to 
observe  that  one  of  the  duties  of  a  householder  in  the 
Yukon  was  mowing  the  hay  on  his  house-top  !  There  is 
one  door  in  front,  and  at  least  one  window  on  the  sunny 
side,  fitted  whenever  possible  with  a  sash  of  from  four  to 
six  panes,  the  better  cabins  having  double  sashes,  to  |)r<'- 

'97 


1 '' 

i  a: , 


<  H 


THE    KLONDIKE    vSTAMPEDE 


li  > 


vent  frosting.  As  a  sash,  whenever  it  is  to  be  had  at  all, 
is  worth  $20,  many  cabins  have  only  a  white  flour-sack 
nailed  over  the  opening.  A  much  better  window,  and  a 
really  decorative  one,  is  made  of  a  dozen  or  more  white 
ginger-ale  bottles,  set  vertically  in  an  opening  the  thick- 
ness (jf  a  log.  The  fl(.)or  is  either  of  lumber  or  poles  hewn 
flat  on  top.  Many  cabins,  especially  on  new  creeks,  dis- 
pense with  a  floor.  The  cabin  is  warmed  with  an  ordinary 
sheet-iron  Yukon  stove,  set  on  four  [)osts,  the  stove-pipe 
passing  through  a  square  oil -can  in  the  roof,  the  space 
around  the  pipe  being  usually  filled  in  with  clay.  The 
logs  are  chinked  with  moss,  which  is  usually  laid  on  as  the 
walls  go  up.  Properly  chinked  and  roofed,  the  tempera- 
ture even  in  the  coldest  weather  can  be  raised  to  an  un- 
comfortable pitch.  To  avoid  ill  effects  from  overheating 
and  likewise  poor  ventilation,  a  small  box  is  placed  in  the 
roof,  with  a  door  which  can  be  opened  and  closed.  Some 
of  the  camps  have  a  "  Russian  furnace  " — an  oven  made 
of  three  thick  sides  of  baked  clay  covered  with  a  large 
sheet  of  iron,  the  open  end  being  htted  with  a  sliding  iron 
door.  A  Yukon  stove,  made  by  a  tinsmith  in  Dawson, 
with  a  drum  for  baking  and  three  joints  of  pipe,  costs 
$65.    An  open  fireplace  is  no  use  in  the  coldesi  weather. 

The  bunks  are  simply  rough  platforms  wide  enough 
for  two  persons,  usually  built  of  poles  and  boards,  and 
ccn'ered  with  spruce  boughs,  upon  which  are  spread  the 
blankets  and  robes,  a  flour-sack  containing  socks  or  moc- 
casins often  serving  for  a  pillow.  If  there  is  a  woman 
about,  a  bit  of  curtain  shows  at  the  window,  and  the  walls 
and  ceiling  are  often  covered  with  cheap  calico,  but  even 
with  these  touches  the  air  is  far  from  being  one  of  luxury. 

The  miner's  light  is  pre-eminently  the  candle,  which  is 
used  in  a  special  candlestick  of  steel,  with  a  point  to 
thrust  into  the  face  of  a  l)ank  of  earth,  and  a  h(;ok  for 

iy8 


I 


.1. 


walls 

y 

jJB^iMiaj 

H^^PSi^F^^ 

-^^y^^Sfi 

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r. 

^^^^^^^^^B  ^^? 

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even 
xurv. 

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^/''V  i^iSl^^^^D 

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ich  is 

nt  to 

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1 

*     '■ 

ii 


C  A  B  I  N  -  B  U  I  L  I)  I  N  G    B  E  \A)W    Z  E  R  ( ) 

hanging  to  a  nail  in  the  wall.  Candles  have  always  been 
so  searce  in  the  Yukon,  and  ordinary  lamps  and  oil  even 
more  so,  that  nearly  every  eabin  has  what  is  called  a 
"  bitch  " — a  milk  or  meat  can,  with  a  loose  wick  at  one 
side,  burning  bacon  grease.  The  original  "bitch"  was  a 
piece  of  fat  bacon  stuck  into  the  split  end  of  a  stick. 

We  built  our  cabin  fourteen  by  sixteen  feet.  But 
though  we  did  not  have  to  go  over  one  hundred  feet  for 
a  single  stick  of  timber,  we  did  not  fully  realize,  when  we 
began,  the  actual  suffering  of  handling  logs  in  a  tempera- 
ture already  much  below  zero  and  steadily  falling.  Brown 
reconsidered  his  intention  of  leaving,  and  stayed  on,  but 
even  with  his  assistance,  after  three  weeks  of  brutal 
labor,  we  still  had  no  floor,  no  dirt  on  the  roof,  and 
neither  door  nor  window  nor  furniture.  The  walls, 
too,  were  rather  low  (for  a  very  "swell"  cabin),  a  de- 
ficiency which  my  partner  Pelletier,  who  is  a  small 
man,  used  to  explain  by  saying  that  we  put  the  roof  on 
as  soon  as  the  cabin  reached  a  height  where  he  could 
stand  under  the  side  wall  and  I  could  stand  under  the 
middle.  We  built  a  window  of  celluloid  plates  that  was 
the  wonder  of  the  gulch,  a  door  of  goods-boxes,  a  table 
of  the  same,  three  rough  stools  and  two  bunks  in  the 
end,  and  we  covered  half  of  the  extension  roof,  enclos- 
ing it  with  poles,  an  addition,  however,  more  ornamental 
than  useful. 

During  all  this  time  we  lived  in  the  tent,  which  was 
strung  by  a  rope  between  two  trees.  The  thermometer 
fell  to  ^^9"  below  zero,  but  it  was  astonishing  how  warm 
a  stove  made  the  tent;  as  soon  as  the  fire  went  down, 
however,  it  was  as  cold  as  out-of-doors.  Between  us 
we  had  thirteen  pairs  of  blankets,  thin  and  thick,  and  in 
the  midst  of  these  we  slept ;  even  then,  with  all  oiu" 
clothes  on  and  lying  close  together,  we  were  never  really 

301 


i  ! 


'i', 


THE    KLONDIKE    vSTAMPEDE 


warm  ;  but  in  time  we  grew  accustomed  to  what  we 
could  not  avoid.  A  great  annoj-ance  was  caused  by  the 
steam  of  our  breath  and  from  our  bodies  cr)ndensing  and 
freezing,  until  the  white  frost  about  our  heads  looked 
like  that  around  a  bear's  den  in  winter.  The  breakfast 
lire  would  quickly  melt  the  frost ;  but  we  never  dried 
out.  Each  succeeding  night  there  was  more  frost  and 
more  water.  The  steam  from  the  kettles  condensed  and 
froze  at  the  top  of  the  tent,  returning  in  streams  of  ice 
down  the  inside  of  the  tent.  This  disagreeable  feature 
is  observed  also  in  new  cabins  of  green  logs,  or  when  the 
roof  is  thin  and  the  snow  melts  through.  These  "glac- 
iers," as  the  miners  call  them,  often  fill  one  corner  or 
half  the  side  of  a  cabin,  even  when  the  air  inside  is,  from 
a  Yukon  stand-point,  comfortable. 

In  the  warmest  Yukon  cabin  nails  and  other  iron-work 
that  extend  through  from  outside  are  white  with  frost, 
no  matter  how  hot  the  tire  in  the  stove.  Out-doors  frost 
collects  on  eyelashes,  eyebrows,  mustache,  and  beard,  |)ro- 
ducing  a  change  in  well-known  features  that  is  startling. 
l)Ut  it  causes  no  harm — only  inconvenience,  which  can- 
not be  wholly  avoided  by  any  amount  oi  muffling  up. 
l^'or  that  reascjii  most  of  the  old-timers  are  smooth- 
shaven.  All  the  new-comers  had  been  cultivating  lux- 
uriant beards  for  three  months,  in  the  belief  that  they 
would  afford  protection  to  the  face,  but  the  first  cold 
weather  showed  them  that  their  additional  warmth  did 
not  compensate  for  their  inconvenience  as  frost-gatherers. 

One  day  while  we  were  digging  in  the  snow  for  moss, 
alongside  the  trail,  a  man  with  four  dogs  stopped  for  a 
chat,  by  a  (ire  we  had  built  to  warm  our  hands  and  shov- 
els. We  knew  him  to  be  an  old-timer  by  his  blue  drill 
parka  anfl  uiiikliiks.  We  remarked  that  it  was  pretty 
cold.     "Oh  no,"  said  he,  "it  isn't  cold  yet.     They  were 

202 


COLD  — COLDER  — COLDEST 

saying  down  -  town  it  was  35°  below  zero,  but  it  isn't 
more  than  22  or  23."  We  told  him  we  were  living  in 
a  tent.  "That's  right.  Stay  where  you  are;  when  it 
gets  cold  you  will  be  ready  to  move  into  the  cabin." 


A    l.r.MliKU    TKAM    ON    liO.NANZA    CUKKK 


It  grew  steadily  colder — no  thermometer  was  needed 
to  show  that.  Our  own  was  a  cheap  affair  of  the  familiar 
summer  veranda  style,  but  it  had  been  conscientiously 
graded  to  register  60"  below  zero,  although  mercury 
freezes  at  —40",  It  kept  shortening  until  it  showed 
—  50'',  but  when  it  suddenly  landed  in  the  bulb  at, 
at  least,  —65°  we  threw  the  thing  away.  Old-timers 
measure  the  temperature  by  the  following  system  (ob- 
tained by  comparison  with  the  standard  spirit  ther- 
mometer):  Mercury  freezes  at  —40";  coal-oil  (kerosene) 

203 


n 


>  HE 


I- 
3i 

I' 

■1  ■ 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

freezes  at  from  —35°  to  —55°,  according  to  grade  ;  '*  pain- 
killer" freezes  at  —72°;  "St.  Jacob's  Oil"  freezes  at 
—  75°;  best  Hudson's  Bay  rum  freezes  at  —80°.  This 
last  temperature  was  authoritatively  recorded  at  Fort 
Reliance,  six  miles  below  Dawson  ;*  but  such  low  tem- 
peratures were  rarely  observed  and  did  not  last  more 
than  a  few  days  at  a  time,  during  which  the  old-timer 
simply  stayed  in-doors  and  kept  warm.  No  dog-freighter 
travels  when  the  mercury,  which  he  carries  in  a  small 
bottle  tied  to  the  sled,  goes  hard  like  lead.  We  obtained 
water  through  a  hole  in  the  ice  of  the  creek,  but  by  the 
first  of  December,  when  that  left  us,  we  would  gather  a 
sackful  of  ice  and  melt  it  in  a  large  tin  can  which  was 
continually  kept  on  the  stove  for  that  purpose.  Bacon 
we  chopped  off  with  an  axe ;  salt  was  as  hard  as  a  grind- 
stone, and  the  ice  rang  like  flint-glass. 

Our  cabin,  being  near  the  trail,  proved  conveniently 
situated  for  studying  the  types  of  people  ;  it  became  a 
regular  stopping-place  for  hand-warming,  or  for  a  drink 
of  water,  or  as  a  place  of  deposit  when  a  sled  broke  down. 
It  was  a  diversion  to  watch  the  throng  of  men  and  dogs. 

From  half-past  nine  in  the  morning  until  the  pink- 
tinged  light  in  the  sky  died  out  behind  the  southwestern 
hills,  during  the  five  or  six  hours  of  diffused  light  that 
constituted  day,  the  trail  before  our  door  was  a  moving 
panorama  of  life,  color,  and  sound.  The  trees  bent  un- 
der their  increasing  weight  of  snow,  which  there  was  not 
a  breath  of  air  to  dislodge.  The  sharp  '' Mahsh!"  of  the 
dog- freighter,  mingled  with  other  language  not  fit  to 
hear,  would  be  echoed  by  the  dismal  howl  of  a  poor 
"Malamut"  dog  refusing  to  niaJisli.     Now  a  bunch  of 


*  United  Slates  Geo/oj^ical  Sunuy,  1899,  "  Maps  and  Descriptions 
of  Routes  of  Exploration  in  Alaska,"  p.  134. 

204 


It 
is 


THE    BONANZA    TRAIL 

stampeders,  with  packs  on  their  backs,  would  swing  along 
at  a  half-trot,  bound  for  the  scene  of  the  latest-reported 
strike.  Now  a  man  with  a  sled-rope  around  his  patient 
neck,  and  "gee-pole"  in  hand,  dragging  an  exceedingly 
heavy  load  of  supplies  to  his  camp,  sometimes  with  one 
dog,  just  in  front  of  him,  pulling  for  every  poimd  in  him. 
Now  a  string  of  five  heavy-set  "  Malamuts,"  drawing 
two  sleds  loaded  high  with  boxes  and  sacks,  with  a  strap- 
ping young  man  with  a  smooth,  red  face,  a  sable-skin  cap, 
striped  drill  parka,  mukliiks,  and  moose  -  skin  mittens. 
The  dogs  are  down  in  the  traces,  every  mother's  son 


-  -^  •-■■' 

fflnHHHHMHHHH 

N 

•  J 

E 

'  1 

W~^Mr:^-'^'^  ^^^^^ 

^    - 

'    ^ 

W        •    • 

PRQSI'ECTOK,    WIIH    oUlKir    AND    SI.I  ,),    IN    I'KdNI'    DK    OUU    CABIN 

pulling  his  three  hundred  pounds,  the  driver  helping 
them  over  the  little  hills  with  a  quick  step  and  a  cut  to 
his  words  as  he  orders  his  team,  that  mark  him  as  the 
trained  Yukon  dog  -  puncher,  good  for  his  sixty  miles 
a  day  on  a  good  trail.     Scarcely  have  the  freight-sleds 

305 


n 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

passed  when  there  is  a  tinkle  of  little  bells,  and  down  the 
trail  comes  seven  "Malamuts"  with  heads  up  and  tails 
curled,  dancing  along  with  a  basket -sleigh,  in    which, 


ON    TIIK   BONANZA   TKAM, 


bundled  almost  out  of  sight  in  lynx  robes  and  parka 
hoods,  are  a  woman  and  a  little  child.  A  middle-aged,  tall 
man.  in  spotted  deer-skin  coat,  white  deer-skin  iiiuklnks, 
and  fur-trimmed  mittens,  runs  along  with  his  hands  on 
the  sleigh  handles,  shouting  a  word  of  encouragement  to 
his  well-trained  dogs — an  outfit  from  Eldorado.     Now  a 

206 


THE    BONANZA    TRAIL 


i^ 


train  of  mixed  clogs — St.  Bernards,  spaniels,  and  New- 
foundlands— goes  by. 

All  day  long  they  come  and  go,  bright  spots  of  life  and 
color,  the  more  grateful  in  contrast  with  its  sombre  set- 
ting of  twiHght,  snow,  and  dark  evergreen-trees.  After 
the  glow  of  the  setting  sun  has  died  away,  and  the  night 
wood  has  been  stacked  beside  the  stove,  and  the  birch- 
bark  kindling  is  ready  for  the  morning's  fire,  and  the 
candle  burns  low,  the  intense  stillness  of  the  winter 
forest  is  broken  only  by  the  occasional  distant  wail  of  a 
dog,  or  the  ''' iMa/ish"  of  some  belated  driver.  V^xan  that 
ceases,  and  there  is  no  sound  but  the  crackling  of  the 
lire  in  the  stove,  or  a  mouse  gnawing  in  a  dark  ,  'rner  of 
the  cabin.  There  is  nothing  to  do  but  slee[).  l-'orlu- 
nately,  it  is  little  trouble  to  do  that.  All  who  speak  of  it 
confess  that  they  never  slept  so  long  or  so  soundly  in 
'heir  lives. 


i 


I'KKICIITER 


m 


•  I 


CHAPTER   XI 

Dogs  and  IJog-tlriving — The  Typical  "Malamut" — A  Dog  team  Equip- 
ment—  riie  Finest  Dogteam  in  the  Kh)n(like 

^N  every  part  of  the  world  the  dog 
is  the  companion  and  helper  of 
iTian,  but  nowhere  is  he  so  es- 
sentially a  part  <jf  the  life  of  the 
people  as  in  the  northern  part 
of  this  continent,  from  (jreen- 
land  to  Behring  Sea.  The  rein- 
deer, as  in  Lapland  and  Siberia, 
may  in  tune  supplant  him  in  the  Yukon,  and  horses  to 
some  extent  do  now  perform  the  heavier  work  ;  but  the 
dog  will  hold  his  place  as  the  inseparable  companion  of 
the  miner,  hunter,  and  traveller  for  a  long  time  to  come. 
The  best  type  of  the  Yukon  dog  is  the  true  Eskimo, 
known  by  the  miners  as  "Malamut,"  from  a  tribe  of 
Eskimo  of  that  name  at  the  mouth  of  the  Yukon.  It 
stands  about  as  high  as  the  Scotch  collie,  which  it  resem- 
bles a  little  ;  but  with  its  thick,  short  neck,  sharp  muzzle, 
oblique  eyes,  short,  pointed  ears,  dense,  coarse  hair,  which 
protects  it  from  the  severest  cold,  it  is  more  wolf-like 
than  any  other  variety  of  dog.  With  its  bushy  tail  car- 
ried tightly  curled  over  its  back,  with  head  and  ears 
erect,  and  with  its  broad  chest,  it  is  the  expression 
of  energy,  vitality,  and  self-reliance.  In  color  it  varies 
from  a  dirty  white  through  black  and  white  to  jet  black  ; 
but  there   is  also  another  sort,  a  grizzled  ^Tay,  which 

208 


m 


i)()(;s 

suggests  an  admixture  of  gray  wolf,  with  which  it  is 
known  to  mate.  Indeed,  these  wolf -colored  dogs  so 
closely  reseml)le  a  wolf  that  if  the  two  were  placed  side 
by  side  a  little  distance  off  it  would  be  difficult  to  dis- 
tiuguish  them,  but  at  a  nearer  view  tiie  dog  lacks  some- 
what the  hard,  sinister  expression  of  his  wild  relative. 
The  best  type  of  dog  is  still  to  be  found  among  the  Eski- 
mos, as  well  as  among  the  Indian  tribes  of  the  intericjr, 


A    TYriCAI,   "  MAI.AMCT 


but  these  latter,  known  as  "  Siwash  "  dogs,  are  frequently 
inferior  in  size,  though  very  tough.  The  pure  type  has 
undergone  further  change  by  an  admixture  of  "  outside  " 
dog,  such  as  St.  Bernard,  Newfoundland,  and  mongrel, 
that  the  miners  have  brought  in.  The  "inside"  dog,  as 
the  native  dog  is  called  by  the  miners,  endures  hunger 
and  cold  better  than  the  "outside,"  and  is  therefore 
preferred  for  long  journeys  over  the  snow,  where  speed 
o  209 


-.  i 


TIIF.    KI.OXDIKK    STAMPRDK 

is  desired  and  food  is  scarce  or  har<l  to  carry  or  procure. 
For  siiort-distance,  heavy  freigluiiig  the  large  St.  Ber- 
nard or  mastiff  is  unsur|)assed,  but  it  eats  more.  In  Daw- 
son this  winter  there  is  an  average  of  one  dog  to  every 
three  or  four  of  the  i)oi)ulation — probably  fifteen  hundred 
dogs  in  all — and  out  of  all  that  number  there  are  but  one 
bull-terrier,  one  pug,  and  one  or  two  hipdogs,  which,  the 
other  day  when  I  was  in  town,  seemed  to  have  t)rganized 
a  little  society  of  their  own,  comprising  the  whole  small- 
dog  population.  Somebodies'  pets  they,  but  sadly  out  of 
place  here,  where  neither  dogs  nor  men  have  much  time 
for  play.  In  the  whole  place  there  is  not  another  do- 
mestic animal  but  dogs,  e.vcept  nine  or  ten  horses — not 
a  cat,  cow,  goat,  sheep,  or  fowl. 

The  load  a  strong  dog  can  pull  is  surprising.  With 
the  driver  at  the  "gee-pole"  of  the  sled  to  help  over  in- 
e(|ualities,  a  dog  will  drag  three  or  four  hundred  pounds 
along  a  g  od  trail  as  fast  as  a  man  walks;  while  with 
the  weight  of  a  man  he  switches  along  all  day  at  a  lively 
trot,  '[hey  are  put  to  the  same  use  as  a  horse:  in  win- 
ter hauling  lumber,  cord-wood,  logs,  and  supi)lies,  and  in 
svimmer  packing  small  loads  on  their  backs.  I  have  seen 
a  team,  of  five  native  dogs  in  Bonanza  Creek  hauling  700 
feet  of  green  spruce  lumber,  weighing  1600  jiounds. 

It  has  been  said  that  the  native  dog  does  not  manifest 
aflfection  for  its  master ;  but  that  is  not  always  the  case. 
It  depends  upon  what  has  been  his  early  training — like 
master,  like  dog.  As  a  rule,  he  is  stolid  and  indifferent, 
deigning  to  notice  a  human  only  in  sharp  barks  and 
howls,  the  most  dismal  sound  in  nature,  but  he  hardly 
ever  snaps,  and  after  the  first  surprise  at  an  act  of 
kindness  has  worn  off  he  shows  himself  capable  of 
marked  afTection. 

In  a  community  of  dogs,  as  with  wolves,  there  is  one 

210 


who  is  r 
and  ofte 
although 
roarious 
wrath,  b 
unless  a 


iSSbn 


DOC-TI-.A 

beast  is 
shakings 
therefor 
really  ai\ 
themselj 
earth,  aJ 


DOCiS 

who  is  master,  a  supremacy  attained  only  after  fieree 
and  often  blofxly  encounters.  I  say  often  bloody,  for 
although  actual  hostilities  are  accompanied  l)y  an  up- 
roarious medley  of  snarls  and  other  expressions  of  doij 
wrath,  blood  rarely  flows,  nor  is  actual  pain  inllicied, 
unless  a  keen  fang  has  found  lodgment  in  a  leg;  Un'  tlu- 


l)()(;-l  KAM    ON     IIIK    YIKON  (TIUvSK    DOC.S    ARK   JIST    CONU'l.KTINU    A 
500-MU,E   JOURNKY) 

beast  is  protected  by  fur  so  dense  that  the  most  violent 
shakings  have  little  effect.  The  frequent  encounters, 
therefore,  sound  and  look  a  great  deal  worse  than  they 
really  are,  a  fact  apparently  well  understood  by  the  dogs 
themselves,  for  a  Malamut  dog  is  the  biggest  bluffer  on- 
earth,  as  well  as  the  coolest. 

211 


w 


\  ? 


I 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 


I  was  watching  two  dogs  one  day  in  the  middle  oi  the 
street.  One  fine  gray  fellow  was  sitting  quietly  mind- 
ing his  own  business.  Suddenly,  for  no  reason  that  I 
could  see,  another  of  equal  size  put  its  countenance 
close  to  that  of  the  first,  lifted  its  lips  from  a  double  row 
of  hideous  ivory  fangs,  braced  forward  on  its  fore-feet, 
and  drew  its  breath  in  with  a  sli  between  its  teeth.  I 
never  saw  a  more  malignant  expression.  He  stood  thus 
for  a  whole  minute,  at  each  breath  throwing  more  and 

more  intensity  into  the 
threat,  for  such  it  evi- 
dently was,  until  it  was 
perfectly  evident  that 
no  limit  was  set  to  his 
rage  short  of  chewing 
the  other  dog  into  small 
particles.  The  other 
dog?  Why,  he  never 
so  much  as  turned  a 
hair,  but  sat  there  with 
the  look  that  only  a 
IVIalamut  can  assume. 
When  the  other  had 
lashed  himself  into  a 
fury,  he  turned  his  head 
the  other  way,  flay- 
ing as  plainly  as  .;^rds 
could  say  it,  "Oh,  you 
bore  me  very  much  I" 
Another  time  I  saw  what  well  illustrates  their  wolfish 
nature.  About  thirty  dogs  of  difl^erent  sizes  and  values 
were  contending  for  lord-and-mastership  of  Main  Street, 
Daw.son.  The  fight,  a  series  of  fierce  encounters,  resolved 
itself  after   some   hours   into   a  combat    betw-een    three 

212 


YUKON   STOVE  RIGGED   FOR   SLEUGIC 

JOIJRNKY 


DOG    TRAITvS 


grizzled  black  dogs  of  great  strength  and  another  even 
larger,  hut  evidently  a  mixture  of  Malamut  and  "out- 
side "  dog,  having  the  cut  of  the  Malamut,  but  with 
much  longer  hair,  w  hich  was  of  the  appearance  and  color 
of  an  old  red  floor-rug.  In  every  encounter  against  the 
three  individually  the  old  "door -mat"  was  successful. 
Finally  the  three,  during  a  breathing-spell,  turned  side 
by  side,  faced  the  other,  and  gave  him  "the  curse"  with 
ferocious  gleam  of  the  eye  and  lip -lifting.  The  next 
moment  three  dogs  were  on  top  of  the  red  one,  and  then 
three  miners  (a  crowd  was  following)  pulled  three  pro- 
testing dogs  away  by  the  scuff  of  the  neck  or  they  would 
have  killed  him.  A  general  separation  was  then  begun, 
dogs  being  too  valuable  to  lose.  The  red  dog  was  no 
sooner  released  than  he  got  up,  looked  around  defiantly, 
bleeding  from  cuts,  but  still  master  of  the  situation. 
Woe  to  the  under  dog  in  an  impromptu  melee  ;  he  has 
no  friend. 

A  Malamut  makes  a  poor  watch-dog,  being  a  natural- 
horn  thief  himself,  and  proud  than  otherwise  of  the 
fact.  Consequently,  everything  must  be  put  out  of 
reach  that  he  can  Lsteal.  He  values  his  importance  with- 
out conceit  or  vanity  ;  throws  himself  down  to  sleep 
in  the  way  of  everybody  by  day  or  night,  in  delightful 
confidence  that  no  one  will  touch  or  hurt  him.  In  har- 
ness he  is  really  proud  of  hio  work,  and  trots  along  with 
tail  tightly  curled,  head  up,  and  ears  erect,  v.'ith  a  hai)py, 
coi^ep.ted  "smile."  The  poor  "  outside"  dog — one  feels 
sorry  for  him.     lie  is  often  a  pet  or  a  game  dog,  and  the 

his  pride.     One  meets 


idgery 


galling 


him  on  the  trail,  tugging  hard  at  a  load  of  freight  for 
his  master,  with  t'til  and  head  down.  He  casts  his  eyes 
up  into  your''  witii  :i  shamed  expression  which  says, 
"Who  ever  thought  that  I  would  come  to  this  !" 

213 


I 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 


As  an  instance  of  the  pride  a  dog  takes  in  his  work,  one 
day  a  dog-team  was  coming  down  Bonanza  trail.  Just 
where  the  trail  lifts  from  the  creek  into  the  woods  is  a 
raise  of  a  few  feet.  There  were  two  dogs  in  the  team,  and 
they  were  hauling  a  sled  with  a  mode' ate  ^Ocid.  When 
they  came  to  the  rise  the  pole-dog  flunk  d.  .  lie  driver 
"  mahsh-cd,"  but  to  no  effect.  The  lead-doj,  was  willing 
enough,  but  every  time  he  started  the  other  stopped. 
The  leader  stood  such  nonsense  as  long  as  he  could,  then 
turned  on  the  pole-dog,  thr  ;w  him  down,  atid  wiped  the 
snow  with  him.  When  he  got  up  the  driver  took  the 
pole-dog  out,  and  the  leader  pulled  the  load  up  the  grade 
all  alone.     A  good  leader  is  all-important. 

There  are  times  when  kindness  won't  work  at  all.  If 
it  is  a  dog  that  an  Indian  has  rained  and  beaten  without 
reason  from  the  time  it  was  a  puppy  tied  to  a  strin;-  by 
the  lodge  fire,  it  is  useless  to  expect  that  such  a  do^;  will 
always  work  when  it  should  without  a  sound  bcatinr- 
He  regards  a  gentle  driver  as  easy,  and  shirks  a  id  -I'lks. 
At  such  a  time  it  must  be  settled  who  is  master,  in  a 
way  that  the  dog  can  understand  and  remjmbei  ;  •  r 
after  all,  he  is  a  wolf  in  many  ways,  and  in  the  wolf  pack 
it  is  cruel  brute  force  that  masters. 

Patience,  above  all  things,  is  needed  with  dogs.  They 
are  most  willing  workers,  but  need  encouragement.  A 
dog -driver,  one  of  the  best  on  the  Yukon,  told  me: 
"The  half  of  them  don't  know  how  to  treat.  .  leir  dogs. 
They  don't  whip  them  at  the  right  time.  \«^i.en  ^'ou 
have  to,  whip  a  dog  so  he  will  remember  it.  -.Vhen  I 
started  to  drive  dogs,  and  one  sulked,  I  used  to  go  to 
the  dog,  give  him  a  cu*..  .;iiu  jump  back  to  the  gee-pole, 
and  think  I  had  done  all  ri;;!ii.  Now  I  try  to  e.x^ilain  it 
to  him  till  he  unders  ands,  and  then  if  he  sulks  I  baste 
hell  out  of  him." 

914 


list 
is  a 
and 
hen 
iver 


hen 
the 
the 

rade 


■i 


FINEvST    DOG-TEAM    IN    THE    KLONDIKE 

The  dog-driver  who  vakies  his  dogs  never  uses  a  club 
or  stick  ;  yet  he  does  use  what  seems  more  cruel,  but 
really  is  not,  the  dog-chain,  or  he  pounds  his  thick-hair 
sides  with  his  fist.  The  regular  dog-driver's  whip,  which 
a  few  carry,  is  a  seal-leather,  eight-strand,  round  plait  as 
thick  as  one's  thumb  and  five  feet  long,  tapering  to  a 
point,  with  a  wooden  handle  ten  inches  long.  The  leather 
is  weighted  for  about  twenty  inches  from  the  handle 
with  a  slender  bag  inside  filled  with  shot. 

The  finest  dr>g-team  in  the  Klondike  is  a  team  of  five 
powerful  gray  "  huskies "  from  the  Porcupine  River. 
This  winter  they  came  into  the  possession  of  their  pres- 
ent owner.  Captain  Barnett,  of  the  Alaska  Commercial 
Company,  under  peculiar  circumstances.  Three  of  the 
team  of  five  were  owned  by  Chief  John  vShuman,  of  the 
band  of  Indians  at  Rampart  House,  the  Hudson's  Bay 
post  on  the  Porcupine.  The  Indians  went  on  their 
usual  fall  hunt  after  caribou,  but  the  caribou  failed  to 
run  as  they  expected,  and  the  village  of  about  fifty 
souls,  on  the  verge  of  starvation,  started  for  Fort  Yukon, 
a  runner  being  sent  ahead  to  inform  the  white  men. 
Captain  Barnett  organized  a  party  and  met  them  on 
the  river,  eighty  miles  up.  At  that  time  the  Indians 
had  been  for  three  days  with  nothing  to  cat  but  one 
rabbit  and  three  or  four  "dormice"  (ermines  or  weasels). 
A  big  "feed"  was  given,  and  Chief  John  Shuman,  wish- 
ing to  show  his  gratitude  to  the  white  men,  arose  dur- 
ing the  feast  and  made  a  big  speech,  telling  how  well 
he  had  been  treated,  saying  that  he  wanted  to  do  some- 
thing to  show  his  gratitude.  He  had  some  fine  dog.s — 
white  men  had  wanted  to  buy  them  before — but  he  had 
said  that  no  white  man  should  own  his  dogs.  Now  tlu're 
was  one  white  man  whom  he  was  willing  should  have 
those  dogs,  and  he  was  Captain  Barnett. 

?i5 


^1: 

ft' 


h 


T  HE    K  L  C)  N  D I  K  E    STAMPEDE 

Captain  Barnctt  gladly  paid  the  Indian  $1200  for  three 
dogs,  and  he  completed  the  team  by  the  purchase  of 
two  more  from  another  Indian,  for  which  he  paid  $500, 
making  $1700  for  the  whole  team.  Besides  that,  he  took 
vhe  Indians  to  Fort  Yukon,  where  he  feasted  them  again, 
and  carried  Chief  John  Shuman  to  Circle  City  to  sell  his 
furs,  and  only  when  he  had  done  this  did  he  then  become 
the  possessor  of  the  dogs. 

They  are  splendid  fellows,  taller  than  the  Yukon  dogs, 
and  probably  are  what  they  are  said  to  be — "  huskies," 
the  native  dog  of  the  Mackenzie  River. 


KLONDIKE  INDIAN   DiiG    llARNKSS,   MOOSK   IHUK   WITH   DRU.I.  TRACKS 

The  manner  of  liarnessing  dogs  differs  somewhat 
throughout  the  Northwest.  In  the  Hudson's  Bay  region 
south  of  Hudson's  Bay  the  dog  pulls  from  a  collar  by  a 
single  trace  over  the  back,  and  there  are  as  many  sep- 
arate traces  as  dogs.  In  the  Upper  Yukon  the  harness 
used  by  both  Indians  and  white  men  is  a  collar,  with 
side-traces  and  back-band,  and,  if  more  than  one  dog  is 
used,  they  are  hitched  tandem,  the  traces  of  the  dog 
ahead  being  fastened  to  the  traces  of  the  one  behind, 
either  close  to  the  collar  or  at  a  point  behind  the  back 
strap.  One  sort  of  collar  is  made  of  harness  leather 
ituffed  with  hair  and  stiffened  with  quarter-inch  iron 

216 


V. 


* 


M\<'- 


.•!i 


i 


'I  <, 


m 


D  C)  G  -  II  A  R  NESS 


wire,  serving  as  haincs,  but  part  of  the  collar  itself ;  the 
back-strap  and  belly-strap  are  also  leather,  and  the  har- 
ness is  fitted  with  metal  snaps,  the  traces  being  of  web- 
bing. 

The  native  Indian  harness  is  made,  the  collar  of  tanned 
moose-hide,  stuffed  with  moose-hair,  and  the  back-band, 
traces,  etc.,  of  the  same  material  or  of  a  double  thickness 
of  stout  canvas  or  twill;  the  traces  taper  to  a  point, 
with  a  wooden  pin  which  passes  through  a  slit  or  loop 
at  the  sled  or  in  the  harness  of  the  dog  behind,  and  is 
brought  back  and  buttoned  into  a  hole  in  the  trace. 
This  is  readily  unfastened  in  cold  weather. 

If  a  Yukon  freight  sleigh,  with  a  gee-pole  for  steering, 
is  used,  the  pole-dog  is  hitched  to  a  short  singletree  con- 
nected with  the  sled  by  a  single  long  rope,  so  that  the 
dog  is  just  ahead  of  the  man  at  the  pole.  It  is  amusing 
to  see  the  driver  jumping  from  side  to  side  of  this  rope, 
which  threatens  to  trip  him  up  at  every  turn. 

Another  kind  of  harness  is,  strangely  enough,  rarely 
seen  on  the  upper  river;  it  is  the  Eskinu)  harness.  The 
Eskimo  harness  is  rather  hard  to  describe  intelligibly 
in  words.  It  is  made  of  a  strip  of  fresh  bear-hide  about 
two  feet  long  and,  say,  a  foot  wide.  The  Eskimo  cuts 
three  slits  lengthwise  in  this.  The  middle  slit  is  about 
a  foot  long;  the  two  other  slits,  one  on  each  side  of  this, 
are  larger.  In  this  condition  it  has  no  resemblance  to  a 
harness,  but  the  middle  slit  is  [)ulled  over  the  dog's  head, 
and  the  fore-legs  are  lifted  and  thrust  through  first  one 
slit  and  then  the  other.  The  end  on  the  dog's  back  is 
connected  with  a  snap  and  swivel  to  a  single  long  seal- 
hide  trace,  the  dogs  being  hitched  either  tandem  at  inter- 
vals of  about  five  feet,  or  else  in  pairs  side  by  side  at  the 
same  distance  apart,  with  a  single  leader.  The  raw  bear- 
skin, by  pulling,  stretches  into  shape.     Another  harness 

tI9 


■lli 


:  i 


lli 


li 


Wu 


111. 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

is  made  of  the  ri;4,hl  form  at  once  out  of  rope  or  cloth. 
The  disadvantage  of  the  Eskimo  method  is  that  in 
wooded  country,  one  dog  may  go  one  side  of  a  tree  while 


w// 


KSKIMO   HOC,    MAKNKSS 
A.   Bear-skill.    U.    Rope 


another  goes  the  other.  But  it  has  this  decided  advant- 
age, that,  when  two  teams  meet  and  there  arises  a  differ- 
ence, as  generally  happens,  the  swivels  enable  the  re- 
spective owners,  after  they  have  untangled  their  teams, 
to  straighten  the  dogs  out  at  once  without  untwisting. 
Or  when,  as  also  happens,  the  sled  gets  a  start  on  the; 
dogs  and  everything  lands  in  a  heap  at  the  foot  of  the 


hill,  the  swivel  then  is  a  great  advantage. 

What  is  now  called  the  "  Yukon  "  sleigh  was  an  inve 


n- 


tion  of  the  Cassiar  miners,  and  is  the  sleigh  in  general 


S  T.  E  I G  II  S 

use  for  freighting?.  The  distinctive  sleigli  of  the  Yukon 
is  the  "  basket  "  sleigh,  originally  built  on  the  lower  river. 
It  is  a  light,  elastic  frame  of  hickory,  oak,  or  white  birch, 
lashed  with  rawhide,  runners  half  a  foot  high,  the  vertical 
side  timbers  of  the  runners  extending  above  the  bed 
one  foot  at  the  front  and  two  feet  at  the  rear,  finished 
off  with  a  rail  on  top,  the  interstices  being  filled  with 


HASKKT   SI.KKIH 


a  netting  of  cord  or  rawhide.  Two  handles,  after  the 
manner  of  plough-handles,  are  placed  at  the  rear,  and  by 
these  the  driver  steers  and  prevents  upsetting.  The  in- 
land Eskimo  sled  is  of  white  birch,  which  is  not  strong, 
but  on  the  coast  it  is  made  of  driftwood,  much  heavier, 
and  shod  with  bone.  In  length  the  basket  sleigh  is 
eight  to  twelve  feet,  and  in  width  twenty  to  twenty- 
two  inches.  The  flat  Indian  toboggan,  made  of  white 
birch,  bent  up  in  front,  is  used  by  the  natives  in  hunt- 
ing, but  is  not  serviceable  for  the  trail. 

For  the  following  details  of  an  equipment,  such  as  has 
hitherto  been  necessary  for  the  trip  from  Dawson  to 
Dyea,  I  am  indebted  to  Mr.  A.  D.  Nash,  one  of  the  best 
dog-drivers  on  the  Yukon. 

On  his  last  trip  out  he  figured  on  provisioirs  for  thirty 
days.  The  party  consisted  of  four  men,  with  six  dogs  to 
a  basket  sleigh  and  six  to  a  freight  sleigh,  both  with  22- 
inch   track.      He   sent  beforehand   to   Fort    Selkirk    by 


:|.,i 


M   ' 


t)- 


J2I 


I 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 


steamer  350  pounds  of  food,  consisting  of  too  lbs.  of 
dried  salmon,  100  lbs.  of  bacon,  and  100  lbs.  of  rice  for 
the  dogs,  and  50  lbs.  of  provisions,  including  one  cooked 
ham,  for  the  men. 

When  he  left  Dawson  he  carried,  for  the  men  :  45  lbs. 
of  bacon;  i^  50-lb.  sacks  of  flour,  15  lbs.  of  which  were 
made  up  into  doughnuts,  which  were  frozen  and  put  into 
a  sack  ;  20  lbs.  of  rice  ;  15  lbs.  of  beans  ;  10  lbs.  of  rolled 
oats;  20  lbs.  of  dried  fruit ;  10  lbs.  of  corn-meal ;  30  lbs. 
of  butter ;  tea,  coffee,  and  beef  extract  (the  last  is  all 
right,  but  a  man  can't  live  on  it);  6  cans  of  cocoa;  1 
doz.  cans  of  milk  ;  a  few  cans  of  beef  and  mutton  ;  t 
ham,  ready  cooked.  And  for  the  dogs  the  following . 
175  lbs.  of  rice;  235  lbs.  of  bacon;  150  lbs.  of  salmon. 
The  rest  of  the  equii)mcnt  consisted  of  4  robes,  i  lynx, 
I  bear,  2  caribou  ;  canvas  bed-cover,  6x7  ft.,  to  lay  on 
the  ground  ;  10  x  10  drill-tent, with  2-ft.  wall;  sheet-iron 
stove,  without  oven,  9  x  12  x  24  in.,  with  3  joints  of  pipe 
stowed  inside  loose,  a  damper  in  the  first  joint,  and  a 
chain  at  rear  for  lifting  the  stove  each  morning  without 
burning  the  mittens.  A  tank  was  made  of  copper  to  fit 
around  stove-pipe,  to  hold  i  gallon,  for  melting  snow 
and  ice,  with  a  half- cover  top;  a  cooking  outfit  of  2 
frying-pans  and  2  small  kettles,  and  a  spoon,  tin  plate, 
and  tin  cup  for  each  man.  Two  axes  ;  a  repair  kit,  with 
rawhide  for  replacing  the  lashings  of  the  basket  sleigh  ; 
snow-shoes,  two  pairs;  one  long  "trail-breaker,"  five  o\ 
six  feet  long  by  fifteen  inches  wide;  and  "trail  shoes," 
two  and  a  half  feet  long  by  nine  inches  wide.  A  couple 
of  dog-chains  go  with  the  outfit  for  rough-locks  under 
the  sleighs  when  going  down  steep  grades. 

For  cooking  the  dog  -  food  a  special  tank  was  made 
of  4X  tin,  into  which  the  stove  telescoped,  with  ;.|-inch 
iron  handles  riveted  to  each  end,  and  hinged  so  as  to 

222 


A    DO(i-TEAM    EQUIPMENT 


drop  out  of  the  way.  This  tank  was  put  on  an  open  fire, 
while  the  stove  was  used  to  warm  the  tent.  The  open 
Hrc  cooks  in  less  time  than  the  stove. 

The  daily  allowance  of  each  dog  was  one  cup  of  rice 
and  one  pound  of  bacon,  and  one-half  pound  of  fish  at 
night.  Dogs  are  fed  only  once  a  day,  but  sometimes, 
when  the  men  stop  at  noon  to  boil  a  kettle  of  tea  and 
eat  a  doughnut,  each  are  given  a  doughnut ;  but  the 
rule  is  to  give  them  all  they  can  eat  once  a  day. 

To  load  the  sleigh,  the  bed-cover  is  placed  over  the 
sleigh,  and  the  g(Jods  laid  on,  and  the 
cover  folded    over   close   and    lashed 
tight,  so  that  if  the  sleigh  rolls  over 
nothing  can  spill  out. 

The  tent  is  rigged  with  a  ridge-pole 
of  rope,  so  as  to  be  swung  between  two 
trees,  with  a  rope  inside  to  hang  clothes 
to  dry. 

The  native  dog  needs  no  care,  fur- 
ther than  if  his  feet  get  sore  he  may 
come  into  the  tent  and  dry  them. 
Dog  moccasins  (little  pockets  a.  >h 
leather  soles  and  cloth  tops)  are  aouH*- 
times  used. 

It  is  better,  all  travellers  say,  to  avoid 
a  cabin  at  night,  as  one  cannot  so  tv,m- 
pletely  dry  off  as  in  one's  own  tent. 

One  who  pictures  the  frozen  smooth 
river  as  a  pond  cannot  understand  the 
difficulties  of  the  trail.    The  first  team 
up  from  Circle  City  this  winter  was  thirty-five  days  mak- 
ing the  journey,  and  chopped  its  w'ay  forty  times  across 
the  river. 

Twenty-five  to  thirty  days  was  considered  good  time 

223 


.MOCCASIN 


W 


11 


I! 

■    \l 


r' 


(  i 


J:l 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 


out  to  Dyea  in  early  winter,  and  eighteen  in  returning 
in  sprinjj;.  The  quickest  time  between  Dawson  and  the 
coast  is  chiimed  by  Bob  Ensley  in  sixteen  days.* 

One  of  the  lonj^est  dog  journeys  on  record  was  made 
by  young  Charles  Hamilton,  of  the  North  American 
Transportation  and  Trading  Company,  who,  in  cjrder  to 
communicate  before  the  next  spring  with  the  officers  of 
his  company  at  Chicago,  left  St.  Michael  n  November 
26th,  1892,  with   1000  pounds   of   outfit  three   sleds 

drawn  by  twenty-one  dogs.  He  reachv.>  ..e  coast  on 
March  19th  the  next  year,  having  travelled  a  distance 


KLONDIKE   in'NTING  SNOW-SHOF.   AND   TRAII,   SNOW-SHOE 

of  over  t8oo  river- miles,  a  distance  made  hundreds  of 
miles  greater  by  the  devious  windings  of  the  trail.  He 
walked  much  of  the  distance  on  snow-shoes,  guided  by 
Indians,  meeting  with  much  hardship  but  no  serious 
mishap.  This  winter  "Jack"  Carr,  a  United  States  mail- 
carrier,  made  the  same  trip,  but  lost  several  of  his  dogs 
from  exhaustion. 

The  life  of  a  dog-freighter  is  one  of  hardest  work  ;  but 
the  clear,  ruddy  complexion,  elastic  step,  with  the  swag- 
ger and  snap  that  show  mastery  of  his  team,  are  proof 

*  As  these  words  are  written  news  arrives  that  in  March,  1899. 
one  team  of  floors  has  made  the  trip  in  ten  days,  and  that  the 
mounted  police  have  sent  mail- out  in  less  time  by  relays. 


HARDSliri'S    OF    A    I)  ()  (5  -  1)  R  I  V  IC  K 


eiKHigh  that  hardsliip,  instead  of  soiiicihing  to  be;  shirked, 
is  necessary  to  the  most  vij^oruus  liealtli,  to  a  viijoroiis 
body  and  a  clear  brain.  WaUh'on  told  of  his  hist  trip  on 
the  river  last  winter. 

"  Last  winter,  when  prrub  was  hij^h,  I  went  down  with 
a  dog-team  to  Circle.  The  wind  blew  so  hard  at  one  time 
that  it  blew  the  trail-sled,  piled  with  stuff,  clean  ovi-r, 
and  blew  the  dogs  out  in  a  string.  You  sweat  like  every- 
thing when  you  arc  travelling,  and  the  Mackinaws  freeze 
like  a  board.  My  coat  froze,  and  1  turned  it  to  the  fire 
and  burned  a  hole  in  the  back.  I  sews  that  up,  but  that 
made  it  so  I  couldn't  button  it  in  front;  so  I  lets  in  a 
piece  of  gunny-sack  in  fr<jnt.  I  had  gunny-sacks  around 
my  legs  and  a  mukluk  on  one  foot  and  a  moccasin  on 
the  other.  I  froze  both  feet,  the  tips  of  my  fingers,  and 
my  nose,  face,  and  ears.  I  was  a  pretty-lookiiig  sight 
when  I  got  into  Circle.  The  boys  didn't  know  me.  It 
is  impossible  to  cover  up  the  face  so  it  will  not  freeze 
when  it  bhiws  on  the  river.  1  didn't  want  any  more  of 
that,  and  I  came  up  with  a  load  and  gave  up  freigl  ling 
between  here  and  Circle." 

One  of  these  dogs  is  a  Malamut,  jet  black,  with  a  bob- 
tail, and  fur  so  thick  that  one  can  hardly  separate  the 
hairs  to  see  to  the  skin.  His  fur  is  like  that  of  a  very 
thick  black -bear -skin.  He  weighs  eighty  pounds,  and 
he  looks  so  much  like  a  black  bear  that  if  a  man  saw 
him  on  the  trail  at  a  distance  he  would  shoot  him.  He 
is  as  kind  as  a  kitten,  and  loves  to  be  petted,  but  is  too 
heavy  to  get  into  Waldron's  lap,  as  he  tries  to  do. 


1 


CHAPTER  XII 

Kinds  of  Gold  Mining — Varieties  of  Gold — Methods  of  "Placer"  Min- 
ing— "Fanning" — "Rocking" — "Sluicing" — First  Gold  Mining  in 
the  Yukon — "  Bar  Diggings" — Discovery  of  Coarse  Gold — Discovery 
of  "  Burning" — "  Summer  Diggings  "  and  "  Winter  Diggings" 

I  OLD  mining  is  of  two  kinds.  One 
known  as  "  bed-rock,"  or  "  quartz," 
mining,  is  performed  by  crushing  tiie 
original  vein-rock  in  which  the  gold 
has  been  deposited  by  nature,  and 
separating  the  metal.  Gold  occurs 
not  alone  in  quartz,  but  in  mica-schist, 
feldspar,  and  other  "  metamorphic" 
rock,  so  that  the  term  "bed-rock" 
mining  is  in  one  sense  more  proper  than  "quartz"  min- 
ing ;  but  as  quartz  is,  in  the  United  States,  the  com- 
monest rock  in  which  gold  is  found  in  considerable 
quantity,  "quartz"  mining  is  the  term  in  universal  use 
here. 

The  other  kind  of  mining  is  known  as  "  placer,"  or 
stream-bed,  mining.  In  placer  or  stream-bed  deposits 
nature,  operating  with  water  and  air,  has  already  done 
the  work  of  the  crusher,  and  to  a  certain  extent  that  of 
the  separator  also.  The  particles  of  metal  which  grew  in 
the  veins  have,  by  the  wearing  down  of  the  mountain 
masses,  found  their  way  into  the  valleys  of  creeks  and 
rivers,  and  rest  on,  in,  or  near   bed-rock — bed-rock  as 

226 


"PLACER"    MINING 

understood  by  the  placer -miner  being  not  necessarily 
the  hard  rock-formation,  but  any  substance,  even  clay, 
sufficiently  dense  to  hold  the  gold,  which,  by  reason  of 
its  great  weight,  seeks  the  lowest  level.  In  placer  min- 
ing expensive  machinery  is  not  usually  required,  but 
only  such  as  a  man  can  easily  carry  with  him  or  make 
with  his  own  hands;  hence  placer  mining  is  frequently 
spoken  of  as  "poor-man's"  mining.  As  placer  gold  is 
commonly  within  the  reach  of  every  man  with  strong 
hands,  the  discovery  of  rich  placer  deposits  has  always 
aroused  more  excitement  than  the  discovery  of  vastly 
richer  gold-bearing  veins. 

Often  the  bed  of  the  stream  in  which  the  gold  first 
fell  has  continued  to  wear  deeper,  and  wherever  that 
has  happened  the  bulk  of  the  gold  has  found  a  new  level ; 
but  a  considerable  portion  may  remain  hundreds  of  feet 
above  the  newer  stream-bed,  in  situations  that  in  no  W;ay 
suggest  a  river  channel  until  the  surface  of  the  ground 
is  removed  and  water  -  worn  gravel  found  beneath. 
Such  deposits  are  termed  "bench,"  or  "hill-side"  dig- 
gings, and  are  to  be  looked  for  by  experienced  miners 
alongside  rich  gold-bearing  streams. 

Gold  in  its  metallic  forms  is  variously  known  as  "  flour" 
gold,  "leaf"  or  "float"  gold,  "wire"  gold,  "fine"  gold, 
"  coarse  "  gold,  and  "  nuggets."  Flour  gold  may  be  so 
fine  as  to  be  scarcely  visible  to  the  unaided  eye ;  leaf 
gold  is  in  thin  flattened  pieces  up  to  half  an  inch  or 
more  square,  and  wire  gold  is  gold  in  short  wire -like 
pieces.  Coarse  gold  is  a  general  term  that  includes 
everything  above  fine  or  liour  gold,  or,  say,  from  the  size 
of  coarse  corn-meal  to  that  of  grains  of  wheat  or  larger. 
"Nugget"  is  likewise  a  flexible  term.  Where  fine  gold 
predominates,  a  smaller  piece  might  be  called  a  nugget 
than  where   coarse   gold    is   the  rule.     Nuggets  run  in 


-i 


' 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

weight    from,  say,  a    pennyweight    to   as   much   as    an 
ordinary  man  can  lift  witl       j  hands. 

Gold  when  found  in  nature  in  the  metallic  state  is 
termed  "  native,"  and  is  never  found  perfectly  pure,  but 
alloyed  with  other  metals,  such  as  silver,  antimony,  tin, 
copper,  etc.,  the  proportion  varying  greatly  in  different 


i ; 


S;  A 


KLOMUIKE  NUGGETS — IWU-THIRUS   NATURAL  SIZE 


localities,  and  determining  the  relative  "fineness  "  of  the 
gold. 

To  separate  the  gold  from  the  dirt  and  gravel  in  placer 
mining  the  same  general  principle  is  employed  as  by  nat- 
ure—  namely,  water  in  motion.  The  simplest  tool  for 
this  purpose,  and  that  which  every  placer-miner  provides 
himself,  is  the  "pan,"  a  dish  of  sheet- iron  two  or  three 

228 


"  P  A  N  N  I  N  G  " 

inches  deep,  with  flaring  sides,  about  a  foot  in  diameter 
at  the  bottom,  and  seventeen  or  eighteen  inches  at  the 
top  ;  a  pick,  and  a  shovel  with  a  round  point  and  long 
handle,  complete  the  essential  tools  of  the  placer-miner. 


PANNING 


"Panning"  is  performed  by  filling  the  pan  with  the 
gravel  believed  to  contain  gold  and  taking  it  to  a  stream 
or  vessel  of  water;  then,  holding  the  pan  in  both  hands, 
it  is  dipped  into  the  water  and  shaken  so  as  to  disturb 
the  contents  and  allow  the  gold  to  fall  to  the  bot- 
tom. The  larger  rocks  being  removed  by  hand,  the 
dirty  water  and  light  stones  are  allowed  to  run   over 

229 


THE    KLONDIKE    vSTAMPEUE 


I 

I 
1 


the  rim  of  the  pan.  The  pan  is  again  filled  with  water 
and  shaken,  and  this  operation  is  kept  up  until  there  re- 
mains in  the  bottom  of  the  pan  only  the  heavier  sand 
and  particles  of  other  metal,  such  as  magnetic  iron,  or 
"  black  sand,"  which  is  generally  found  in  abundance 
with  gold.  When  the  contents  of  the  pan  have  been  re- 
duced to  the  bulk  of,  say,  a  tablespoonful,  a  little  clean 
water  is  taken  into  the  pan,  and  the  pan  given  a  till 
which  causes  the  water  to  swish  back  and  forth,  or  else, 
by  a  peculiar  rotary  motion,  around  and  around  the  pan. 
The  lighter  particles  are  carried  ahead  by  the  water, 
and,  if  there  is  gold  in  the  dirt,  little  yellow  grains  will 
be  observed  to  drag  behind,  plainly  visible  on  the  dark 
iron  of  the  pan.  When  one  has  once  seen  j^oM,  nothinj, 
else  can  be  mistaken  for  it.*  When  the  gold  is  "fine" 
there  is  danger  of  its  floating  off  in  the  water  ;  so,  when 
such  is  known  to  be  the  case,  the  miner  puts  a  few 
drops  of  quicksilver  into  the  pan.  Gold  and  quicksilver 
have  a  strong  affinity,  and  the  instant  they  are  brought 
together  the  two  unite,  forming  an  amalgam,  which  is 
easily  secured.  The  pan  containing  the  amalgam  may 
be  heated  over  a  fire,  which  dissipates  the  quicksilver, 
leaving  a  mass  of  fine  gold.  But  when  it  is  desired  to 
save  the  cpiicksilver,  the  amalgam  is  poured  into  a  little 
sack  of  fine  cloth  and  the  quicksilver  squeezed  out,  and 
when  no  more  can  be  removed  the  lump  is  heated  to 
dispel  the  remaining  quicksilver.  If  the  gold  is  "  coarse," 
the  pan  is  simply  dried  and  the  gold  weighed  on  the 
scales,  which  every  miner  carries,  and  put  into  a  little 
Inickskin  bag.  A  single  grain  of  gold  is  called  a  "color." 
A  prospector  will  say  that  he  found  so  many  "colors," 
but  it  has  no  direct  reference  to  the  value.     What  con- 

*  "  Fools'  p;old,"so  often  mistaken  by  the  inexperienced,  is  suU 
phiiret  of  iron,  or  iron  pyrites.  * 

230 


mm^mm^ 


THE    "ROCKER" 

stitutes  "pay"  dirt  varies,  of  course,  with  the  amount 
of  wages  a  man  is  willing  or  able  to  work  for.  A  "  pros- 
pect "  is  simply  the  gold  a  miner   finds  in  one  panful. 


"  rocking" 


and  the  term  is  usually  employed  to  mean  an  amount 
sufficient  to  pay  for  the  work. 

The  "  pan  "  is  the  miner's  basis  of  estimate.  Two 
"shovelfuls"  make  one  pan,  103  "pans"  make  one  cubic 
yard  of  earth.  In  this  way  he  will  try  to  estimate  the 
probable  amount  of  gold  which  the  gravel  deposit  con- 
tains. 

When  the   prospector  has,  by  panning,  located  a  de- 

231 


>ii 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

posit  of  gold,  he  usually  constructs  a  machine  for  more 
rapidly  washing  the  gravel.  The  simplest  contrivance, 
next  to  the  pan,  is  what  is  called  the  "  rocker,"  said  to 
be  a  Chinese  invention.  The  rocker  is  sim[)ly  a  box  on 
rockers,  like  a  cradle,  with  a  perforated  metal  top,  or 
"hoppci,  '  and  a  sloping  blanket,  or  "apron,"  inside.  It 
is  set  near  the  water  and  the  dirt  shovelled  into  the  per- 
forated hopper.  Water  is  dipped  up  in  a  long-handled 
dipper  and  poured  in  with  the  dirt,  the  rocker  being 
energetically  rocked  at  the  same  time  by  means  of  an 


MAKING    A    "CLKAN-rr"    TKOM    A    KOCKKK 

upright  handle.  The  larger  stones  are  removed  by  hand, 
the  gold  falls  through  perforations  and  lodges  upon 
the  apron,  which  at  intervals  is  cleaned,  the  contents 

232 


I'i 


PWwIli 


m 


^1 


(1, 

)n 
ts 


.1 


"vS  LU  ICING" 

being  placed  in  a  bucket  with  quicksilver  until  all  the 
fine  particles  of  gold  were  taken  up.  The  amalgam 
formed  is  squeezed  in  a  cloth  filter,  and  the  remaining 
lump  heated  over  a  fire  until  practically  all  trace  of  the 
(juicksilver  disappears.  If  the  gold  is  coarse,  however,  the 
contents  of  the  apron  are  simply  scraped  into  a  pan, 
and  then  carefully  panned  out.  The  rocker  may  vary 
somewhat  in  details  of  construction,  but  the  principle 
remains  the  same  in  all.  The  dipper  is  often  made  out 
of  a  round  two-quart  can,  fitted  with  a  stick  about  two 
feet  long  set  at  an  acute  angle.  The  rocker  is  especially 
useful  where  there  is  a  scarcity  of  water,  as  it  can  be 
placed  over  a  ta-  k  or  reservoir,  and  the  same  water  used 
again  and  again. 

When  there  is  what  the  miners  call  a  sufficient  "head  " 
or  fall  and  volume  of  water,  the  miner  resorts  to  the 
"sluice-box  "  as  the  next  most  expeditious  method.  The 
sluice-box  is  a  box  about  twelve  feet  long,  with  open 
ends ;  the  bottom  being  a  board  fourteen  inches  wide  at 
one  end,  twelve  inches  at  the  other,  and  the  sides  eight 
inches  high.  It  is  made  narrower  at  one  end  so  that  the 
lower  end  of  one  box  will  just  fit  into  the  ujjper  end  of 
another,  where  several  are  placed  together  to  form  a 
continuous  waterway. 

On  the  floor  of  the  box  is  placed  a  frame  called  a 
"  riffle,"  made  either  of  round  or  square  poles  two  inches 
or  less  in  diameter,  placed  lengthwise,  or  else  short  ones 
crosswise ;  the  riffles  are  made  so  that  they  can  be  lifted 
out  of  the  box.  The  length  of  a  string  of  boxes  depends 
on  the  fineness  of  the  gold,  for,  obviously,  the  smaller  gold 
will  be  carried  farther  by  the  water  than  the  coarse  be- 
fore it  settles  in  the  interstices  of  the  riffles ;  and  as  there 
must  be  sufficient  rapidity  of  current  to  carry  the  light 
stones,  it  is  also  evident  that  the  water  must  start  at  a 

233 


i: 


r 


!■! 


nf 


h 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

suffcieiit  elevation  for  the  water  leaving  the  boxes  to 
run  on  down  stream.  So  a  dam  is  built  at  the  upper 
end  of  the  ground  to  be  worked,  with  two  sluiee-gates, 
one  opening  into  the  sluice -boxes,  and  another  into  a 
ditch  or  flume,  by  which  the  water  of  the  creek  not 
needed  for  the  boxes  is  diverted  around  the  claim. 
Whenever  the  grade  of  the  creek  is  so  slight  that  the 
requisite  head  of  watcK  cannot  be  had  in  the  length  of 
a  single  claim,  several  miners  often  unite  and  build  one 
dam. 

At  the  lower  end  of  a  string  of  sluice-boxes  is  one  two 
feet  wide  at  the  upper  end,  narrowing  to  a  foot  at  the 
lower,  and  of  the  same  length  as  a  box,  or  shorter.  This 
is  called  the  "dump-box,"  and  is  also  fitted  with  riffles. 
Some  miners  add  two  or  three  more  boxes  with  rifHies, 
known  as  "tail-boxes."  The  dirt  and  stones  that  have 
been  worked  over  once  in  the  rocker,  or  sluice-boxes,  are 
called  "tailings." 

For  ordinary  coarse  gold  the  grade  is  as  follows  :  The 
upper,  or  "  lead,"  boxes  are  set  on  a  half-inch  grade,  the 
next  four  to  six  on  a  6-inch  grade,  the  last  one  on  an 
8-inch  grade,  and  the  "  dump-box  "  on  a  5-inch  grade. 

After  the  water  is  turned  into  the  boxes  the  gold- 
bearing  dirt  is  shovelled  in — the  big  stones  being  forked 
out — until  the  crevices  of  the  riffles  are  choked.  Then 
the  water  is  turned  off,  the  riffles  taken  up,  and  a  little 
water  turned  in  and  the  gold  carefully  separated.  This 
operation  is  called  "cleaning  up,"  and  will  be  more  par- 
ticularly described  later.  A  "  box  length  "  is  an  area  of 
ground  measured  by  the  length  of  the  box,  twelve  feet, one 
way  and  six  feet  each  side  the  box,  being  as  far  as  a  man 
can  reach  with  the  long-handled  shovel,  the  area  being 
ab(jut  one  hundred  and  lifty-six  square  feet.  The  term  is 
used  in  speaking  of  the  amount  of  gold  cleaned  up  from 
.234 


F  1  R  S  T    MINERS    IN    T  H  E    Y  U  K  ( )  N 

that  extent  of  ground.  The  expression  so  many  ounces 
or  dollars  of  gold  "to  the  shovel"  means  the  amount  in 
ounces  or  dollars  that  one  man  shovels  into  the  boxes 
i)i  one  day,  or  a  specified  number  of  hours.  The  "pay 
streak"  is  that  part  of  the  stratum  of  gold-bearing  gravel 
that  is  rich  enough  to  pay  to  work.  The  "cut"  is  the 
opening  in  the  steam-bed  in  which  the  sluice-box  is  set  up. 
There  are  other  methods  and  contrivances  for  saving 
gold,  such  as  hydraulicking  ;  but  the  foregoing  general 
description  of  the  simple  tools  known  to  all  miners  is  all 
that  is  needed  to  prepare  the  reader  for  an  account  of 
gold  discovery  in  the  Yukon,  and  how  certain  methods 
of  mining  were  discovered  that  make  the  Klondike  dif- 
ferent from  all  other  gold-fields  yet  discovered. 

As  early  as  the  year  1857,  only  nine  years  after  the 
discovery  of  gold  in  California,  a  northward  mo\'ement 
along  the  western  coast  resulted  in  the  discovery  in  that 
year  of  placer  gold  on  Eraser  River,  in  British  Colum- 
bia, and  a  stampede  from  California.  In  187 1  the  rich 
"  Caribou  "  District  was  discovered,  and  another  excite- 
ment ensued,  which  resulted,  in  1874,  in  the  discovery  of 
rich  gold-fields  in  the  Cassiar  Mountains,  both  of  which 
districts  lie  immediately  south  of  the  headwaters  of 
the  Lewes  River.  The  Cassiar  placers  were  in  time  ex- 
hausted, and  the  hardy  miners  pushed  on,  not  directly 
over  the  mountains,  but  following  bars  of  the  Stikeen 
River,  which  was  a  large  gold-producing  stream,  to  its 
mouth,  and  thence  northerly  along  the  Alaskan  coast. 
In  1880,  Silver  Bow  Basin  was  discovered,  back  of  the 
present  town  of  Juneau,  which  was  first  called  Harris- 
burg,  in  honor  of  Dick  Harris,  one  of  the  two  original 
discoverers,  but  was  subsequently  changed  to  Juneau,  af- 
ter Joe  Juneau,  the  other  partner.    Reports  had  reached 

23s 


M 


1  i' 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

the  outside  from  time  to  time  that  traces  of  gold  had 
been  discovered  b)'  employes  of  trading  companies  in 
the  Yukon.  But  the  pass  over  the  mountains  into  the 
Yukon  was  guarded  by  the  Chilkat  and  Chilkoot  Indians, 
who  opposed  the  entrance  of  all  white  men  into  the  coun- 
try for  any  purpose.  The  year  of  the  Silver  Bow  strike 
a  party  of  white  men  crossed  over — the  first  whom  the 
Indians  allowed  to  go  through.  This  i)arty  brought  back 
good  reports  of  the  bars  on  the  Lewes  River,  and  from 
this  time  on  other  parties  crossed  the  pass,  built  their 
boats  on  the  other  side,  and  descended  the  river  farther 
p.nd  fprther,  working  the  bars— generally  returning  to  the 
coast  the  same  season.  No  mining  was  attempted  in  the 
winter,  nor  was  it  possible.  All  the  work  was  done  in 
the  short  summer  between  the  breaking-up  of  the  ice 
in  the  river  and  the  freezing  in  early  fall ;  but  the  almost 
continual  daylight  of  that  latitude  and  season  somewhat 
increased  their  hours  of  work. 

The  "  bar,"  as  the  term  is  used  by  the  miner,  does  not 
necessarily  mean  a  shallow  portion  of  the  river  ;  rather 
it  is  an  alluvial  deposit  of  sand  and  gravel,  often  ten  or 
twenty  feet  or  more  above  the  low -water  level  of  the 
river.  These  high  banks  carried  gold  in  fine  particles, 
but  so  widely  distributed  that  the  miners  did  not  even 
try  to  work  them  ;  but  in  the  process  of  their  washing 
down  at  freshet  time  the  gravel  was  deposited  inside  the 
bends  of  the  river,  and  the  gold  concentrated  into  layers, 
or  strata,  usually  richest  near  the  heads  of  the  bars. 
The  rocker  was  employed  altogether  to  separate  the 
gold,  which  was  denominated  "fine."  The  gold-bearing 
sands  were  near  the  surface,  and  some  of  these  bars 
proved  very  rich.  Cassiar  Bar,  below  the  mouth  of  the 
Hootalinqua,  in  1886  yielded  to  five  men  on  the  head 
claims  $6000  for  thirty  days'  work. 

2^6 


V 

>    i 


FIRST    M  I  N  1-:  R  S    IN    Til  E    YUKON 

Another  aiul  important  factor  now  entered  into  the 
develo[)ment  of  the  Yukon  mines.  The  Alaska  Com- 
mercial Comi)any,  soon  after  the  purchase  of  Alaska  by 
our  ji^overnment  from  Russia  in  1S67,  was  j^iven  a  lease 
of  the  sealinj>;  rights  of  the  Pribyhjff  Islands,  which  car- 
ried with  it  a  practical  monopoly  of  the  fur -trade  of 
Alaska,  then  solely  a  fur-producing  country.  From  the 
company's  main  distributing- points,  Kadiak  and  Un- 
alaska,  it  supplied  the  sub- station  of  St.  Michael,  and 
from  there,  at  first  by  one  small  steamer,  the  Yiikuii, 
goods  were  sent  to  different  points  on  the  Yukon  where' 
its  agents  were  engaged  in  the  Indian  trade.  Chief  of 
these  agents  at  this  time  were  LeRoy  N.  McQiiesten, 
better  known  as  "Jack"  McQuesten,  Arthur  Harper,  and 
Al  Mayo,  who,  with  some  others  not  so  well  known,  came 
into  the  Yukon  about  the  year  187 1,  from  the  Northwest 
Territory,  by  way  of  the  Mackenzie  and  Porcupine  rivers. 
The  Indian  population  was  larger  then  than  now,  and 
the  furs  from  the  Yukon  were  of  a  high  grade,  the  sable 
being  second  only  to  the  celebrated  Russian  sable  from 
Kanitchatka.  The  traders  occupied  posts  from  time  to 
time  at  different  points  on  the  Middle  Yukon.  !McQues- 
ten  built  Fort  Reliance,  six  miles  below  the  mouth  of  the 
Klondike  River,  in  1873,  and  occupied  that  post  until 
1882.    Not  a  few  of  the  first  miners  wintered  at  this  post. 

In  1885  rich  bars  were  discovered  on  the  Stewart 
River,  and,  with  the  rush  of  miners  there  the  next  sum- 
mer, Messrs.  Harper,  McQuesten  &  Mayo  established  a 
post  at  the  mouth  of  that  river.  During  the  winter 
which  followed  there  was  a  shortage  of  provisions,  and 
the  little  camp  of  seventy  or  eighty  men  was  on  the 
verge  of  starvation.  The  cause  of  the  short^.ge  at  Stew- 
art River  was  the  report,  brought  to  Stewart  River  just 
before  the  river  closed,  that  loanr  ^old  had  been  discov- 

237 


U 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 


ered  on  "Shitanda"  Creek  (a  corruption  of  the  Indian 
name  "Zit-zen-duk "),  now  called  Forty-Mile,  from  its 
having  been  estimated  to  be  that  distance  from  old  "  -u 
Reliance.  It  was  late  in  the  fall  when  the  report  came 
that  Mickey  O'Brien,  Jim  Adams,  and  two  others,  by 
the  name  of  Lambert  and  Franklin,  had  found  coarse 
gold.  A  stampede  for  the  new  diggings  followed,  for 
the  miner  does  not  bother  with  fine  gold  when  he  can 
get  coarse  gold.  Those  miners  who  thought  they  had 
not  enough  supplies  for  the  winter  bought  all  the  tia'ler 
would  sell  them  and  started  for  Forty-Mile.  It  wa'^  the 
late  comers  from  up  rive-  who  suffered  in  consequence. 

A  letter  with  the  news  of  the  find  started  out  from 
Stewart  River  in  January,  carried  by  a  man  named  Will- 
iams, with  an  Indian  boy  and  three  dogs.  On  the  sum- 
mit of  Chilkoot  they  were  overtaken  by  a  storm,  and 
were  buried  for  three  days  in  the  snow.  When  the  storm 
abated  Williams  could  not  walk,  and  was  carried  on  the 
back  of  the  Indian  boy  four  niles  to  Sheep  Camp, 
whence  he  was  sledded  into  Dyea  by  some  Indians,  and 
died  in  the  store  of  Captain  John  J.  H  •ale)  ''^he  dogs 
were  never  seen  again.  The  mi  <  )ngregated  irom 
all  parts  to  know  what  had  br*  ,u'  man  oi  '   for  the 

winter  journey  was  considen  imost  certain  death. 
The  Indian  boy,  picking  up  a  ih.ndf'  of  beans,  said, 
"  Gold  all  same  like  this."  The  excitement  was  intense, 
and  that  spring  over  two  hundred  miners  poured  in  over 
the  pass  to  Forty-Mile. 

The  winter  was  a  season  of  enforced  idleness.  Tiie 
spring  freshet  at  one  end  and  freezing  at  the  other  short- 
ened the  working  season  to  about  sixty-five  days,  durinj. 
which  time  an  average  of  eight  or  ten  dollars  a  day  had 
to  be  made  for  the  next  year's  grub-stake.  Every  man 
was  a  prospector  and  a  hard  worker,  skilled  at  boating, 

238 


"1 

o 


DISCOVERY    OF    FORTY-MILE 


accustomed  to  hardship,  rough,  yet  generous  to  his  fel- 
lows. One  custom  in  particular  that  shows  this  feeling 
was  that  when  the  ist  of  August  came,  any  who  had 
failed  to  locate  a  paying  claim  were  given  permission  to 
go  upon  the  claims  of  such  as  had  struck  it  and  to  take 
out  enough  for  the  next  season's  outfit.  This  peaceable 
condition  in  general  characterized  the  Yukon. 

Forty-Mile,  milike  other  streams  that  had  been  pros- 
pected, proved  to  be  what  the  miners  call  a  "bed-rock" 
creek — that  is,  bed-rock  came  to  or  quite  near  the  sur- 
face. Then  Franklin  Gulch,  tributary  of  Forty- JMile, 
was  discovered  ;  in  the  bed  of  the  small  brook  the  gold 
was  found  under  several  feet  of  gravel.  Other  tributa- 
ries of  Forty-Mile  were  afterwards  discovered,  all  with 
good  pay. 

In  the  spring  of  1886  the  traders  removed  to  Forty- 
Mile,  and  the  rich  diggings  of  that  region  were  devel- 
oped, with  the  post  for  a  base  of  operations;  in  1893  on 
Sixty -Mile,  and  in  1894  on  Birch  Creek,  placers  even 
richer  than  those  on  Forty-Mile  were  discovered. 

With  the  discovery  of  coarse  gold,  sluice-btjxes  were 
introduced,  though  the  rocker  continued  in  common  use. 
Thus  far  the  frozen  condition  of  the  ground  was  the 
greatest  obstacle  to  mining.  The  sun's  rays,  wherever 
they  reached,  were  sufficient  to  thaw  a  foot  or  so  each 
day,  and  each  day  the  miners  would  remove  the  thawed 
dirt.  In  this  manner  bed-rock  on  Forty -Mile,  which 
was  rather  shallow,  could  be  reached  in  one  season. 
Thawing  the  ground  with  fire  had  been  thought  of,  but 
the  idea  was  put  to  no  practical  use.  Its  possibilities 
were  discovered  in  a  curious  way.  At  Franklin  Culch, 
in  1887,  Fred  Hutchinson  (now  of  7  Eldorado)  was  fol- 
lowing a  pay  streak  which  extended  under  water,  and  he 
was  obliged  to  leave  off  work.  That  winter,  howcxer, 
(j  241 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

after  the  ice  had  formed,  it  occurred  to  him  to  chop  the 
surface  of  the  ice  over  the  spot  he  wanted  to  work,  but 
taking  care  not  to  break  through.  As  the  ice  froze 
downwards  he  kept  on  chopping,  until  he  reached  the 
bed  of  the  stream,  thus  having  built  a  sort  of  coffer-dam 


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STARTINP,    A    Iini.F. 


of  ice,  which  kept  the  water  out  of  the  hole.  Hutchin- 
son built  a  tire  on  the  ground,  and  took  out  a  little  i)ay 
dirt.  His  neighbors  observed  his  freakish  undertaking 
and  laughed  at  him.  But  the  following  year  tw(j  of  them 
made  fires  on  the  ground,  and,  the  diggings  being  shal- 
low, took  out  considerable  dirt.  These  first  efforts  were 
necessarily  crude,  but  they  demonstrated  that  ground 
might  be  worked  which  the  sun's  rays  could  not  reach. 
In  any  event,  it  was  a  great  leap  forward,  as  twelve 
months'  work  was  now  possible  instead  of  only  two  as 

242 


BURNING"    DISCOVERED 


before.  Some,  however,  did  not  take  kindly  to  this, 
and  they  said,  "  It's  as  bad  now  inside  as  outside — 
work  winter  and  summer."  After  having  reached  bed- 
rock, ti\e  ne.\t  step  was  to  tunnel  or  drift  along  it. 
This  was  first  done  by  O.  C.  Miller  on  Forty-Mile,  but 
Miller  only  drifted  to  prospect  a  claim  which  he  intended 
to  work  the  following  summer.  From  that  time  on  win- 
ter work  became  more  general,  and  the  deeper  diggings 
were  reserved  for  that  season.  As  deeper  ground  could 
be  worked  out  by  drifting  than  by  the  old  way,  the  term 
"  winter  diggings  "  has  come  to  mean  ground  too  deep 
to  work  by  open  summer  work. 

The  art  of  drifting,  however,  was  not  generally  under- 
stood until  two  or  three  years  before  the  Klondike  dis- 
covery, and  so  much  more  is  being  learned  that  it  may 
truthfully  be  said  that  it  has  taken  the  second  year  at 
Klondike  to  develop  the  Yukon  "  placer  expert." 

In  the  creeks  of  Klondike,  as  far  as  they  have  been 
prospected,  the  gold  is  known  to  be  found  in  two  situa- 
tions. First  on  and  in  bed  -  rock  in  the  beds  of  the 
creeks,  covered  by  from  twelve  to  fifty  feet  of  gravel  and 
muck  ;  secondly,  on  the  sides  of  the  creeks,  either  at  a 
uniform  elevation  of  about  two  hundred  feet  over  the 
present  stream,  being  the  remains  of  a  former  stream- 
bed,  or  else  at  lower  elevations,  where  the  gold-bearing 
dirt  has  slid  down.  These  hill-side  claims  were  unknown 
in  the  Yukon  at  the  time  of  the  Klondike  discovery. 

At  least  two  men  are  required  to  work  a  creek  claim 
in  winter.  Thirty  cords  of  wood  are  required  for  the 
winter's  burnings  of  two  men.  The  wood,  which  grows 
in  the  valleys  and  on  the  hill-sides,  is  either  procured  in 
the  summer  or  fall  before  drifting  begins,  or  as  needed 
from  (lay  to  day.  Drifting  begins  in  late  Se[)tember,  as 
soon  as  the  surface  water  of  the  creeks  is  in  a  measure 

243 


W 


THE    KLONDIKE    vSTAMPEDE 


m 


dried  up  by  the  frost.  Contrary  to  a  prevailing  notion, 
the  colder  the  weather,  the  better  for  winter  work. 
When  the  miner  is  ready  to  place  his  first  fire,  he  judges 
as  well  as  he  can  where  the  pay  streak  is,  but  in  this  he 
has  absolutely  no  surface  indications  to  guide  him.     The 

present  stream  winds 
from  side  to  side  of  the 
valley,  and  the  old 
stream  underneath,  in 
which  the  gold  is  found, 
apparently  did  the  same; 
but  tiie  windings  of  the 
one  afford  no  clew  to  the 
windings  of  the  other. 
A  hole  must  be  put  down 
simply  at  random,  as  a 
gunner  fires  a  first  shot 
to  determine  the  range. 
When  the  shaft  has 
reached  bed  -  rock,  the. 
direction  in  which  the 
old  creek  lies  is  usually  told  by  the  "dip,"  or  slant,  of  the 
bed-rock,  so  the  miner  drifts  in  that  direction  fifteen  or 
twenty  feet,  which  is  as  far  as  it  is  profitable  to  drag  the 
dirt.  Great  dil^culty  is  experienced  in  securing  draught 
for  the  fire  in  the  first  drift.  If  the  pay  streak  is  not 
reached  in  the  first  drift,  a  second  hole  is  put  down  thirty 
or  more  feet  from  the  first  and  the  drifting  continued 
until  the  pay  streak  is  found. 

Then  the  pay  gravel  is  drifted  out,  a  hole  twenty  by 
thirty  feet  being  often  excavated,  the  roof  being  in  such 
cases  supported  by  timbers.  The  surface  indications  are 
further  deceitful  in  that  a  slide  of  the  mountain  may  have 
filled  in  the  side  of  the  creek,  covering  entirely  the  bed 

244 


SF.CTION  OK  A  sua;  T,  Wl.MKK  DKllTING 


i 


■ 


WINTER    "DRIFTING" 

of  the  old  stream.  Even  on  a  rich  creek  the  gold  is  not 
evenly  distributed.  Rough,  broken  bed-rock  holds  the 
gold  better  than  smooth,  over  which  the  gold  appears  to 
have  been  carried  without  lodging.  The  common  man- 
ner of  "  proving  "  a  claim  consists  of  sinking  to  bed-rock, 
and  drifting  on  bed-rock  across  the  creek;  but  if  the  creek 
should  be  "spotted,"  it  may  be  necessary  to  "cross-cut" 
more  than  once.  When  the  pay  streak  has  been  found 
it  is  followed  by  a  series  of  holes  and  drifts  up  and  down. 
In  order  to  know  when  he  is  on  the  pay  streak  the  miner 
each  day  (perhaps  several  times  a  day)  takes  one  or 
more  pans  of  dirt  from  the  hole  and  pans  it  out  in  a 
wooden  tank  of  water  in  the  cabin,  carefully  weighing 
the  gold  thus  found.  If  he  has  five  cents  to  the  pan  it 
may  pay  to  work,  but  only  in  summer.  Ten  cents  to  the 
pan  is  considered  pay  for  winter  work ;  twenty-five  cents 
is  very  rich.    But  this  means  avcrai^c  dirt.    IMincrs  often 


il 


IDKAI,    ri.AN    OF   CRKICK    CI,AIM,    SirnwiNO    RF.[,ATln\    OK    I'AV    STRF.AK 

r<l    CKKKK    BKl) 


deceive  themselves  by  not  averaging  the  dirt,  and  find 
on  cleaning  up  that  they  have  not  the  quantity  of  gold 
in  tlieir  dum])  that  they  expected. 

Formerly  the  first  fire  was  placed  on  the  muck,  but 

245 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 


SI  ,  '  I 


on  account  of  there  being  so  much  water  in  the  muck 
it  was  very  slow  work,  and  it  has  been  found  better  to 
pick  the  muck.  The  hole  is  about  four  by  six  or  seven 
feet,  and  is  made  true  and  square.  When  the  hole  has 
reached  a  depth  at  which  the  dirt  cannot  be  shovelled 


IDEAL   SECTION   SHOWING    HOW   A   CLAIM    IS    "  CROSS-CUT " 

out,  a  windlass,  made  of  a  spruce  log  six  inches  thick 
and  four  and  a  half  feet  long,  and  resting  on  two  posts 
about  four  feet  high,  is  set  over  the  hole,  and  the  dirt 
is  hoisted  in  a  wooden  bucket  which  holds  about  eight 
pans  of  dirt.  One  hundred  buckets  a  day  is  a  good 
day's  work.*  The  fire  is  put  in  at  night  and  in  the 
morning  the  smoke  has  sufficiently  cleared  to  allow  a 
man  to  go  into  the  hole.  The  smoke  is  very  trying  to 
the  eyes,  and  not  infrequently  gases  in  the  hole  have 
overcome  and  killed  the  miner.  As  the  height  of  the 
dump  increases  the  windlass  is  raised  on  crib-work,  so  as 
to  be  on  a  level  with  the  top  of  the  dump.  When  the 
pay  gravel  has  been  found,  it  is  carefully  placed  by  it- 

*■  At  ten  cents  per  pan,  loo  buckets  f<Sx)  pans)=S8o  per  day,  or 
§40  per  man,  wliicli  must  pay  for  all  "dead  "  work — cabin-build- 
ing, wood-cutting,  freighting  supplies,  sluicing,  etc. 

246 


LOCATING    THE    "PAY    STREAK" 

self.  Drifting  continues  until  May,  when  usually  the 
surface  water  runs  in  and  puts  out  the  fires.  It  oftiMi 
happens  that  work  is  hindered  from  that  cause  all  win- 
ter, while  there  may  be  spots,  at  the  side  of  the  present 
stream,  where  burning  can  be  continued  all  summer. 

In  April  and  May  preparations  are  begun  to  sluice  the 
dumps,  by  building  a  dam  exactly  as  for  summer  sluic- 
ing.    The  water  is  led  in  a  three-foot  flume  along  the 


A    DLMl',  WITH    A    WliNDl.ASS    KAlSlil)    ON    CRUi-\Vt»RK 

side  of  the  claim,  and  at  intervals  tapped  by  cross  lines 
of  sluicc-bo.xes,  one  leading  past  each  dump;  and  when 
the  sun  has  thawed  the  dumps  the  dirt  is  shovelled  in,  a 
process  which  will  be  described  in  detail  later. 

To  sink  a  hole  requires  twenty  to  thirty  days,  and  it 
may  be  necessary  to  put  down  a  half-dozen  holes  or 
more  before  the  pay  is  found.  Thus  a  whole  season's 
work  may  be  put  in  without  locating  the  pay,  even  when 

247 


fi 


THE    KLONDIKE    STA  IMPEDE 


the  claim  is  rich,  or  they  may  be  so  fortunate  as  to  strike 
pay  in  the  first  hole. 

Instead  of  risking  all  on  a  new  claim  in  an  undevel- 
oped creek,  many  of  the  new-comers  preferred  to  either 
work  for  wages  on  the  developed  creeks,  or  to  take 
what  is  called  a  "  lay" — a  lease  for  one  year  of  a  section 
fifty  feet  wide  across  the  creek — the  conditions  Ijeing 
to  sink  to  bed-rock,  drift  on  bed-rock  to  the  pay  and  to 
the  edges  of  the  section,  i ..:  a  percentage  varying  from 
fifty  to  seventy-five  per  cent,  of  the  proceeds.  This  is 
unsatisfactory  to  the  "laymen,"  for  the  reason  that  the 
claim  may  be  "spotted,"  and  no  "pay"  in  so  small  a 
section,  and  because  the  whole  season's  work  may  not 
locate  the  pay  even  when  it  is  there.  The  custom  is 
growing  in  disfavor  with  owners  also,  as  a  season's  un- 
successful work  diminishes  the  value  of  the  claim,  which 
would  otherwise  have  at  least  a  speculative  value. 

A  "layman,"  when  he  finds  the  pay  streak,  may  turn  to 
and  hire  men  payable  on  "  bed-rock,"  that  is,  at  the  clean- 
up. Some  lays  are  granted  guaranteeing  wages  of  $15 
per  day,  in  case  the  product  should  not  be  as  large  as  was 
expected — that  is,  the  wages  are  a  first  lien  on  the  output. 

For  a  concise  statement  of  the  methods  that  have 
been  employed  during  the  first  year  of  Klondike,  as  well 
as  the  cost  of  developing  a  claim,  both  winter  and  sum- 
mer diggings,  I  cannot  do  better  than  to  quote  a  state- 
ment made  by  Alexander  McDonald,  to  accomjiany  a 
petition  sent  by  the  miners  to  the  Governor-General  of 
Canada,  in  December,  1897.* 


*  Appeal  of  Yul'on  Miners  to  the  Dominion  of  Canada,  and  i  11- 

eidcnfally  some  ^leeoitn/  of  the  Mines  and  Mininj^  of  A/asica  and 

I  lie  Pyo-.'isional  Distriet  of  the  Yii/^on,  published  as  a  hand-book  of 

*I25  pages  for  distribution  amon^  members  of  Parliament  by  M. 

Landreville,  A.  E.  Wills,  and  Edward  J.  Livernash,  conuiiittcc. 

248 


m. 


m 


A    MINER'S    STATEMENT 


KC 


"  I,  Alexander  McDonald,  do  solemnly  declare:  That  I  am  a 
resident  of  the  Klondike  Mining  Division  of  the  Yukon  District, 
Northwest  Territories,  Dominion  of  Canada. 

"  That  I  am  a  holder  of  several  placer-mining  claims  in  said 
district,  both  in  the  Klondike  and  Indian  divisions  thereof. 

"That  I  am  a  miner  by  occupation.  Since  1880  I  have  been 
engaged  in  the  business  of  mining,  having  mined  within  that 
period  in  Colorado,  on  I^ouglas  Island,  in  the  Forty-Mile  Divi- 
sion of  the  Yukon  District;  and,  since  September,  1896,  in  the 
Klondike  and  Indian  divisions  of  the  Yukon  district.  My  ex- 
perience has  been  mainly  confined  to  dealing  with  the  precious 
metals,  gold  especially. 

"  Tliat  in  said  Yukon  District  I  have  had  experience  at  mining 
for  gold  in  summer  and  winter,  have  worked  in  and  had  charge 
of  placer-mines,  and  am  familiar  with  methods  pursued  in  said 
district,  the  cost  of  mining  therein,  and  the  yield  in  general  of 
the  mineral  belt  thereof. 

"That  what  is  known  in  said  district  as  'summer  work'  begins 
in  June  and  ends  about  the  middle  of  September.  Not  much  is 
accomplished  in  June,  and  the  September  work  is  uncertain. 

"The  '  summer  work  '  consists  in  openmg  pits  or  cuts  (open- 
cast mining)  and  sluicing  the  gravel. 

"  That  all  of  the  deposits  between  moss  and  the  lowest-known 
pay  point  is  frozen  throughout  the  year,  and  this  necessitates  ex- 
posing surfaces  for  thawing  by  the  sun's  heat  in  summer  work- 
ing, and  leads  to  corresponding  slowness  and  difficulty  in  the 
working  of  pits.  The  muck  thaws  three  inches  a  day,  on  an 
average  ;  the  gravel,  about  ten  inches. 

"  That  my  experience  in  mining  in  said  district,  and  my  obser- 
vation of  the  mining  by  others  in  said  district,  convinces  me  that 
an  effective  bed-rock  drain  on  Bonanza  Creek  would  have  to  be 
at  least  2000  feet  long;  on  Eldorado  Creek,  1000  feet. 

"That  there  are  not  any  steam -pumps  in  the  district  afore- 
said, nor  any  electrical  appliances  whatever  for  use  in  drainage 
of  sutnmer  pits.  The  rule  is  for  the  claims  to  be  drained  by 
hand-pumps  of  the  most  primitive  order. 

249 


■I  i 


Till-:    KLONDIKE    STAMPED  IC 

"  Tljcre  is  not  enough  water  available  on  more  than  a  few 
ciaiiiis  to  run  watcr-pcnvcr  pumps. 

"  That  the  yradc  of  the  known  creeks  of  said  district  is  so  slight 
that  in  damming  water  to  a  height  r.-quisite  for  ordinary  sluicing 
water  is  backed  200  feet. 

"  That  during  tiie  past  season  of  '  summer  work  '  $1.50  an  hour 
was  the  universal  price  of  ordinary  unskilled  labor  in  this  district. 
The  better  laborers  commanded  $2  an  hour.  The  working  day 
averaged  ten  hours  of  labor. 


!l   il 


"  liURMNG 

"  That  the  cost  of  lumber  undressed  averaged  40  cents  a  board 
foot  on  the  claims. 

"  That,  as  an  average,  100  sluice-boxes  are  used  on  every  claim 
worked  as  summer  diggings,  with  dimensions  as  follows  :  Length, 
12  feet;  at  top,  10  by  11  inches;  at  bottom,  10  by  13  inches;  the 
10  in  each  instance  representing  depth. 

"  That  72  sets  of  block  riffles  per  claim  arc  used  during  the 

250 


|i   1 


COST    OF    UEVELOPINO    A    C  L  A  I  i\I 


summer  season,  as  claims  are  worked  at  present  in  said  district, 
and  tiiese  cost  an  average  of  $5  a  set. 

"  That  the  cost  of  sluice-boxes,  rilTlcs  not  included,  averages 
§2  5  a  box. 

"That  the  cost  of  setting  a  line  of  sluicc-boxcs,  and  keeping 
said  lines  set  during  the  summer,  averages  §2000. 

"That  the  cost  of  building  a  rough  dam  sulhcient  for  the  or- 
dinary working  of  the  average  500-foot  claim  in  said  district  is 
about  $1000. 

"  That  the  cost  of  constructing  a  waste  ditch  on  Claim  No.  30 
Eldorado  (one  of  the  claims  of  which  I  am  a  holder)  was  about 
$1200.     I  think  it  an  average  ditrh. 

"  That  the  cost  of  handling  the  dirt,  'summer  working,'  from 
the  ground-sluicing  to  the  clean-up,  averages  (labor  bills)  S5  a 
cubic  yard  on  the  entire  quantity  moved. 

"That  the  cost  of  pumping  for  drainage  <>l  summer  pits  400 
feet  long  by  30  feet  wide  averages  $72  per  twenty-four  hours. 

"That  wheelbarrows  cost  $25  apiece;  shovels,  S3.50  apiece; 
mattocks,  $5  apiece;  blacksmiths'  portable  forges,  about  §200 
apiece;  average-weight  grindstones,  about  $35  apiece;  hammers, 
60  cents  a  pound  ;  saws,  $5.50  apiece ;  nails,  40  cents  a  pound  ; 
rope,  50  cents  a  pound;  gold-scales  of  average  rapacity,  S50  a 
pair;  quicksilver,  $1.25  a  pound  ;  black  powder,  §1.25  a  ptjund  ; 
fuse,  2^  cents  a  foot. 

"That  what  is  known  in  said  district  as  'winter  work  '  begins 
in  September  and  ends  late  in  July.  In  September  the  work  is 
preparatory  to  sinking  and  drifting.  After  May  ist  it  is  wholly 
sluicing. 

"  That  said  'winter  work'  is  what  is  known  as  drift-mining. 

"That  because  of  the  frozen  character  of  the  dirt  aforesaid,  it 
is  the  practice  to  thaw  the  dirt  to  be  handled,  first  by  means  of 
wood  fires  to  release  it  from  the  breasts  for  hoisting  it  to  the 
surface,  and  again  by  means  of  the  spring  sun's  heat  to  free  the 
gold  in  sluicing. 

"  That  a  fire  banked  25  feet  in  length  by  2J  feet  in  height,  one- 
half  a  cord  of  wood  being  used,  thaws  about  5  cubic  yards  of 
gravel  as  it  lies  in  the  deposit. 

251 


Tiir:   KLONDiKi*:  sta  m  i>i-:i)i^: 

"  That  the  wood  used  for  sucli  fuel  costs  at  an  average  $25  n. 
cord,  dcMvered  at  the  moutli  of  tlie  shaft. 

"Tliat  the  ccjst  of  sinking  untiinbcred  shafts  4x6  feet,  surface 
dimensions,  is  about  $10  a  foot. 

"That  the  cost  (if  liandling  dirt  from  shaft-sinking  to  clean- 
up, 'winter  work,'  averages  (labor  bills)  $t2  a  cubic  yard. 

"That  in  drift- mining  in  said  district  it  is  impossible,  with 
present  metiiods,  properly  to  clean  up  the  bed-rock,  and,  in 
that  the  richest  pay  is  on  bed-rock  or  in  bed-rock,  great  losses 
ensue. 

"That  the  cost  of  a  cabin  12x14  feet,  ground  dimensions,  is 
about  $600.     Such  cabin  ordinarily  houses  three  miners. 

"That  in  summer  it  costs  25  to  }o  cents  a  pound  f(jr  transpor- 
tation of  supplies  from  Dawson  to  the  mouth  of  Kldorado  Creek  ; 
fifteen  miles  to  the  thirty-sixth  claim  above  the  moiilh  of  Eldo- 
rado Creek,  and  on  said  creek,  35  cents;  to  the  thirty-fifth  claim 
above  Discovery  on  Bonanza  Creek,  35  cents;  to  Hunker  Creek, 
50  cents. 

"That  in  winter  it  costs  10  cents  a  pound  for  transportation  of 
supplies  from  Dawson  to  the  mouth  of  Eldorado  Creek,  and 
other  distances  proportionately." 

The  above  sufficiently  shows  that,  while  Klondike  mines 
are  "poor  men's"  mines,  in  the  sense  of  beinj^j  ])lacer- 
deposits,  stiil,  when  not  only  the  expense  of  reaching  the 
country,  but  the  cost  of  living  while  there,  and  the  cost 
of  working  the  mines  is  considered,  the  Klondike  is  not 
a  poor  )na)Cs  country. 


CHAPTER   Xlir 

First  View  of  the  Mines — An  Karly  Start — lliisy  Scene  in  lionanza  Creek 
— The  (jrand  Forks  —  A  Miner's  Hotel — I'irst  Impressions  of  El- 
dorado—Night with  a  Miner — How  Does  it  Keel  to  be  a  "  Million- 
aire"?— What  is  a  Clain»  Worth? — C'aiiin  Life  in  the  Mines — Pe- 
culiarities of  Old-timers — What  the  Miners  'i'hink  of  Klondike 


'T  was  the  morning  of 
Thanksgiving  Day,  the 
35th  of  November.  The 
night  before  we  had 
cooked  enough  dough- 
nuts to  last  two  men 
a  week,  and  threw 
them  into  an  old  tele- 
scope valise,  along  with  a  junk  of  bacon  and  tea  and 
sugar,  for  one  pack,  and  tied  up  a  pair  of  twelve-pound 
blankets  into  another  pack,  ready  for  a  start  at  day- 
break on  our  first  trij)  to  the  mines.  Our  camp  was  on 
what  was  known  as  claim  No.  97A,  which  meant  that,  if 
no  mistake  had  been  made  in  numl)ering  or  in  measur- 
ing, there  were  ninety -seven  500 -foot  claims  between 
ours  and  Discv.>very  claim,  which  was  seven  claims  be- 
low the  "(irand  Forks"  of  Bonanza  and  Eldorado  cr.eks, 
which  is  the  heart  of  the  diggings — a  mode  of  estimate 
in  this  instance  misleading,  owing  to  numerous  short 
claims  and  one  gap  of  five  whole  claims  between  36  and 
42,  offset  somewhat,  Iiowever,  by  several  long  claims,  off 

^  ..  ^ 


ii 


i'l 


1^ 


bii 


2«. 


iS 
t 


T  1 1  E    K  T.  O  X  r )  IKE    S  T  A  U  P  E  I )  E 

which  fractions  over  and  above  said  500  feet  had  been 
taken  and  distinj^uished  by  the  addition  of  the  letter  "A"' 
to  the  claim  number.  The  actual  distance  to  the  Forks 
was  estimated  at  from  eleven  to  thirteen  miles,  accord- 
ing as  one  followed  the  sled-trail  in  the  windings  of  the 
creek,  or  the  foot-trail,  which  cut  off  the  long  loops. 


^:C^ 


f^fU'^i 


r 


!'^ 


If 


cahins  AM)  i)i;Mrs 


It  was  hardly  daylight  when  we  shouldered  our  re- 
spective packs  and  turned  up  the  trail.  The  air  was 
the  kind  which  hardens  quicksilver;  so  we  started  off 
at  a  lively  trot,  according  to  Yukon  custom,  and  then 
settled  down  to  a  four  or  five  mile  gait.  The  run  put 
a  glow  into  our  cheeks  and  a  warmth  into  our  bodies, 
but  we  had  to  keep  rubbing  chin,  cheeks,  and  nose  to 
prevent    them     turning  white  and  hard — the  first  two 


:::  ^ 


7:     • 


c  o 


r.    »; 


O    7^ 


i    -3 


9 


FIRST    VIEW    OF    THE    MINES 

indications  in  this  keen,  dry  air  that  they  .vfe  frozen,  l-'or 
the  Hrst  four  or  five  miles  bvit  little  work  of  any  kind 
had  been  done — only  an  occasional  newly  built  cabin, 
or  a  crude  windlass  over  a  black  hole  in  the  j^ronnd 
which  still  emitted  smoke  from  the  night's  hre.  One 
early  riser,  out  cho{)[)ing  wood  for  breakfast  fire,  looked 
at  us  curiously,  then  remarked,  "  Stampcdin'?" — the  in- 
ference being  that  two  men  with  i^acks  coming  at  that 
gait  and  that  hour  from  the  direction  of  town  had  re- 
ceived a  "tip"  of  a  strike  somewhere.  When  we  reacheil 
the  "Sixties"  below,  we  came  suddenly  u|)on  a  row  of 
cabins,  and  heaps  of  dirt  with  windlasses  on  top.  The 
day's  work  had  just  begun,  and  sleepy  men  in  Mack- 
inaws  and  old  cloth  "parkies,"  canvas  mittens,  with  faces 
muffled  and  feet  wrapped  in  sacking  (the  working  miner 
cares  little  about  looks,  though  doubtless  many  wore 
them  for  the  sake  of  economy),  had  begun  to  turn  creak- 
ing windlasses,  hoisting  dirt  out  of  the  holes.  Others 
were  busy  sawing  wood  with  long,  single  cross-cut  saws, 
the  slender  blackened  poles  of  spruce,  cottonwood,  and 
birch  being  laid  on  a  long  "  horse,"  having  pegs  each 
side  to  keep  the  pole  from  rolling  otT.  The  first  early 
travellers  were  coming  down  the  trail.  I  shall  not  for- 
get this  first  sight.  A  heavy  bank  of  smoke  from  the 
night's  fires  hung  over  the  valley,  and  the  air  was  la- 
den with  the  smell  of  burned  wood.  More  cabins  and 
smoking  dumps  ;  then  strings  of  cabins,  first  on  one 
side,  then  on  the  other,  the  trail  growing  like  the  street 
of  a  village  in  which  there  were  only  men.  Other  men 
on  the  hill-sides  were  dragging  down  small  poles  for  the 
tires,  streaking  the  white  snow  with  black. 

We  hurried  on,  clambering  over  dumps,  now  shuffling 
along  the  smooth,  polished  sled-trail,  hardly  comprehend- 
ing the  strange,  weird  sight.     Three  hours  from  caiu[) 
K  ^57 


1 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

we  stood  at  the  forks  of  Bonanza  and  Eldorado.  The 
sight  was  one  never  to  be  forgotten.  The  sun,  like  a 
deep-red  ball  in  a  red  glow,  hung  in  the  notch  of  Eldo- 
rado ;  the  smoke  settling  down  like  a  fog  (for  the  evening- 
fires  were  starting);  men  on  the  high  dumps  like  spectres 
in  the  half-smoke,  half-mist ;  faint  outlines  of  scores  of 
cabins ;  the  creaking  of  windlasses — altogether  a  scene 
more  suggestive  of  the  infernal  regions  than  any  spot 
on  earth.  It  was  hard  to  believe  that  this  was  the  spot 
towards  which  all  the  world  was  looking.  Little  more 
than  a  year  ago  this  wilderness,  now  peopled  by  some 
thousands  of  white  men,  resounded  only  to  the  wolf's 
howl  and  the  raven's  hollow  kloiik.  Well  might  one  gaze 
in-  wonder,  whether  an  old  California  miner  or  one  who 
had  never  before  seen  men  dig  gold,  for  the  world  had 
seen  nothing  like  this. 

At  the  side  of  Bonanza  Creek,  where  one  could  look 
into  Eldorado,  was  a  settlement  of  twenty  or  more  cab- 
ins, some  occupied  by  miners,  others  used  for  hotels  and 
various  purposes,  but  no  stores  or  places  of  amusement, 
everything  being  hauled  or  carried  up  from  town,  and 
the  miners  going  to  Dawson  for  recreation.  One  hotel, 
known  as  the  "Grand  Forks,"  of  which  a  Miss  Belinda 
Mulrooney  was  proprietress,  was  evidently  well  supplied 
with  food  and  refreshments,  and  meals  could  be  had 
there,  served  on  a  clean  table-cloth  with  china  dishes, 
f"'"  $3-5o  each,  or  $12  a  day  for  meals  and  bed.  Pelletier 
ran  upon  a  one-time  dog-driver  from  the  north  shore  oi: 
Lake  Superior,  one  Madden,  who  was  here  keeping  a 
hotel.  Just  now  the  proprietor  of  the  "  Hotel  Madden," 
like  most  of  the  other  new-comers,  was  out  of  both  pro- 
visions and  whiskey,  and  was  debating  whether  he  should 
not  have  to  go  "outside"  for  more. 

AVe  were  made  welcome  to  the  best  in  the  house — 

258 


wm 


:c  a 
Ido- 


ng 
tres 


NIKW    Ul'    i;i,l)()K.\!iO    l.i)ii|<!.N(;    II     OM'M    MDl    III    ni      1  Ki:N(  II    (.ULCU 


w<^r 

^ll' 

W'  ■  i 

!i| 

^        L 

I 

1 

'1 

f 

ir 


1 . 


•: 


!!!■! 


mm 


AT    THE    "c;  RAND    FORKS" 


namely,  the  use  of  a  chair,  a  table,  a  stove  for  cookiui;, 
and  a  place  on  the  floor  to  spread  a  blanket.  The  hotel 
was  a  two-storied  log  building,  about  25  x  30  feet,  a  single 
rooni  below,  with  a  ladder  to  reach  up-stairs.  A  large 
heating- stove  stood  in  the  middle  of  the  floor,  a  cook- 
ing-Stove and  a  long  bare  table  at  the  other  entl.  In 
one  toriier  was  what  is  even  more  essential  than  a  dining- 
room  to  a  Yukon  hotel — the  bar,  a  narrow  counter  of 
si^ruce  boards,  back  of  which  on  a  shelf  stood  several 
!')ng  black  bottles,  one  of  which,  it  was  announced  gloom- 
ily, still  contained  a  little  rum,  the  house's  entire  stock 
of  liquid  refreshment.  The  walls  were  further  decorat- 
ed with  some  colored  lithographs  and  cigarette  photo- 
graphs. 

As  a  little  daylight  remained,  we  left  our  blank(;t 
and  ran  over  to  Eldorado,  wending  our  way  among  the 
(lumps — a  matter  of  considerable  difficulty  to  the  stranger 
who  tries  to  take  a  "cut-off."  We  made  direct  for  a  cabin, 
one  of  several  on  the  right  hand,  on  Claim  No.  5,  one  of 
the  first  cabins  built  on  the  creek,  and  first  occupied  by 
Clarence  Ben  /.  Berry  was,  as  we  knew,  in  San  Fran- 
cisco with  the  $130,000  which  he  took  out  with  him  and 
showed, in  the  window  of  his  hotel,  to  wonder-struck  thou- 
sands. But  Frank,  his  brother,  was  there,  superintending 
the  claim,  doing  his  own  house-work  entirely  alone,  and 
feeling  rather  lonesome  in  consequence  ;  so  it  happened 
that  before  we  had  talked  half  that  we  wanted  to  say  it 
was  past  time  for  starting,  and  we  werr  bidden  to  remain 
for  supper.  Our  host,  with  commendable  tle.\terity,  but 
no  small  amount  of  grumbling  at  the  troubles  of  bachelor 
life,  sel  t)ctore  us,  on  a  bare  spruce  table,  a  most  grate- 
ful meal  of  stewed  corn  and  tomatoes  and  beef-steak,  the 
two  first -mentioned  articles  l)eing  served,  as   was  also 

the  milk  for  our  coffee,  in  the  original  tins.     This  "  luill- 

261 


m' 


THE    KLONDrKE    STAMPEDE 

ionaire's"  cabin — if  one  may  speak  of  the  half-owner  of 
Nos.  4,  5,  and  6  Eldorado  and  other  claims  as  a  million- 
aire— was  about  12  x  i6  feet,  with  a  small  window  at  each 
side,  and  the  rear  partitioned  off  for  a  sleeping -apart- 
ment by  a  screen  of  calico.  The  furniture  consisted  of 
the  aforesaid  table,  one  or  two  home  -  made  chairs  or 
stools,  and  two  very  rickety  bedsteads,  all  of  unplaned 
lumber.  A  sheet -iron  stove  stood  by  the  door,  and  be- 
side it  the  square  "panning"  tank  of  dirty  water.  Fry- 
ing -  pans  and  other  cooking  utensils  hung  on  nails  be- 
hind the  stove.  Near  one  window  w  .:s  a  shelf,  on  which 
stood  a  small  glass  kerosene  lamp,  a  small  gold-scale,  and 
a  copper  "  blower."  The  ceiling  was  covered  with  calico ; 
this  and  a  bit  of  curtain  at  the  windows  marked  it  as 
a  woman's  cabin,  something  nicer  than  a  rough  miner 
would  provide  for  himself  ;  in  fact,  there  is  a  bit  of  ro- 
mance here,  of  a  winter's  trip,  a  new  bride,  and  nuggets 
by  the  pocketful. 

We  talked  into  the  small  hours,  of  "  winter  diggings," 
"  box  lengths,"  and  "  pay  streaks."  Berry  went  over  to 
Anton's  cabin  (Anton,  who  owns  one-half  the  so-called 
"Berry  claims")  and  brought  a  nugget  that  had  lately 
been  found.  It  was  a  beautiful  lump  of  gold,  flattish 
and  much  worn,  of  a  bright  "  brassy  "  color,  indicating 
a  large  alloy  of  silver.  .  Putting  it  on  the  gold-scales,  it 
weighed  a  scant  fifteen  and  a  half  ounces,  and  had  been 
taken  from  a  "bench  "  just  outside  of  the  creek  claim. 

Twenty -five  men  were  at  work  on  claims  Nos.  .4,  5, 
and  6,  and  a  fraction  5A.  One  man  did  nothing  but  take 
one  panful  of  dirt  out  of  each  hole  two  or  three  times  a 
day,  so  as  to  keep  on  the  pay  streak.  There  was  a  black- 
smith-shop for  sharpening  picks,  which  wear  out  rapidly 
in  the  frozen  ground.  "  Is  Klondike  a  poor  man's  coun- 
try?" was,  of  course,  one  of  our  questions.     The  reply  was 

262 


HOW   IT    FEELS   TO    BE  A   MILLIONAIRE 


more  emphatic  than  elegant.  Our  next  (luestion  was,  "  Is 
the  ground  rich?"  "There  is  one  dump  I  know  on  ICldo- 
rado  where  a  man  can  take  a  rocker  and  rock  out  $10,000 
in  a  day,  or  he  can  pan  $1000  in  four  pans.  Those  who 
have  high-grade  dirt  will  not  sell  for  less  than  from  $50,000 
to  $150,000.  The  'pay'  is  hard  to  fcdiow,  it  jjinches  out, 
and  we  have  to  follow  it  like  a  gopher-hole.  If  a  man 
could  only  uncover  the  ground  !  I  came  here  and  looked 
at  this  claim.  Gold  liere?  Why,  I  see  a  lot  of  nice  trees 
sticking  out  of  the  ground  !  Twenty-five-dollar  nuggets 
are  coniiiion.  We  have  a  thousand  dollars'  worth,  averag- 
ing $10,  that  came  out  of  our  first  cut.  Some  men  won't 
stay  at  work  at  any  wages  when  they  see  the  ground. 
One  man  came  to  me  and  said  he  wanted  to  quit.  'Aren't 
you  satisfied  ?'  'Yes,  I'm  satisfied  with  you,  but  I  won't 
work  for  any  man  in  a  country  where  there  is  dirt  like 
this,'  and  he  went  up  the  hill-side  and  began  sinking  a 
hole." 

Next  morning  we  continued  on  up  the  creek  for  a  dis- 
tance of  four  miles  to  the  junction  of  Chief  Gulch.  All 
the  way  up  was  the  same;  almost  every  claim  was  being 
worked.  Some  of  the  dumps  are  thirty  feet  high,  and 
evidently  on  the  "  pay,"  for  the  windlasses  are  already 
set  up  on  light  crib-work,  so  as  to  shove  the  dirt  well  to 
the  side  of  the  creek.  Paying  such  wages,  arid  with  a 
tax  besides  of  20  per  cent,  over  them,  there  was  no  ques- 
tion that  the  claims  were  wonderfully  rich.  We  stopped 
at  several  cabins.  One  of  the  miners  expressed  the  feel- 
ing of  probably  a  good  many  of  the  new  "millionaires." 
"  If  we  get  any  worse  we'll  all  be  crazy.  I  haven't  any- 
body to  laugh  with.  I  suppose  my  people  at  home  feel 
pretty  good  —  never  had  anything  till  now."  Every- 
where we  stopped  we  were  received  with  a  miner's  cord- 
iality, and  given  the  best  the  camp  afforded.     On  No. 

263 


f  ■  ( KS 


T  II  E    K  L  n  N  1)  I  K  E    S  T  A  M  V  K  1)  E 


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Sil 


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30  we  tumbled  into  a  hornets'  nest  unawares.  The  fore- 
man was  a  belligerent,  bullet-headed  Irishman.  Hardly 
had  we  responded  to  his  "come  in,"  when,  learnin|j;  that 
we  were  newspaper  men,  he  turned  in  and  gave  us  his 
opinion  of  the  newspapers  for  sending  the  people  into 
this  country.  He  evidently  took  it  for  granted  we 
wanted  specific  information  to  [)ublish,  and  thereby  bring 
more  people  into  the  country,  deceiving  them  as  to  the 
true  condition. 

"  No,"  said  he,  "  I've  got  no  informashim,  I've  got  no 
informashun.  You  newspapers  come  here  and  want  to 
know  how  much  we're  gittin' ;  and  if  I  tell  you  I'm  gittin' 
tin  dollars  to  the  pan  out  of  wan  hole,  you'll  go  and  say 
that  we're  gittin'  that  much  all  over  the  claim,  when 
there  is  a  hole  over  there  where  we're  only  gittin'  a  dol- 
lar to  the  pan." 

We  let  him  talk  on,  and  found  out  about  what  we 
wanted  to  know  —  that  the  claim  was  very  rich.  He 
ended  up  by  being  quite  civil,  asking  us  to  sit  down; 
but  it  looked  at  first  from  his  belligerent  attitude  as 
if  he  were  going  to  put  us  out  forcibly,  which  we  after- 
wards heard  he  had  done  to  a  too -inquisitive  corre- 
spondent. 

Those  working  for  wages,  or  on  "  lays,"  are  more  com- 
municative than  the  owners.  One  need  not  be  long  here 
to  know  that  it  was  hardly  less  than  impertinence  to  ask 
a  mine-owner  what  his  "prospects"  were,  unless  he  hap- 
pened to  be  a  friend,  or  volunteered  the  information, 
and  then  the  information  might  be  confidential.  For, 
with  an  iniquitous  tax,  a  tax  without  precedent,  with- 
out justification,  only  imposed  in  crass  ignorance  of  the 
conditions  of  working  and  expense  of  mining,  a  tax  that 
has  been  likened,  even  by  Canadians  themselves,  to  high- 
way robbery,  it  was  small  wonder  that  they  would  not 

264 


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33  WEST  MAIN  STREET 

WEBSTER,  N.Y.  14580 

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F     ( 


OLD-TIMERS    VS.    NEW-COMERS 

divulge  the  richness  of  their  claims.     But  they  are  all 
ready  to  talk  about  their  neighbors. 

The  miners,  most  of  whom  were  old-timers,  lived  com- 
fortably in  their  cabins,  which  were  overheated  rather 
than  cold. 

In  the  evening,  after  work  is  done,  they  visit  around  or 
remain  indoors  reading  papers  and  books.  One  finds  all 
sorts  of  books,  from  a  cheap  novel  to  Gibbon's  Roman 
Empire  and  Shakespeare,  in  the  cabins  of  Bonanza  and 
Eldorado. 

There  are  many  Swedes  in  Klondike — a  fact  attributed 
largely  to  the  Treadvvell  Mine  at  Juneau  having  brought 
them  there  to  work,  and  there  they  got  the  grub -stake 
which  brought  them  into  the  Yukon,  They  are  a  hard- 
headed  lot  of  men,  accustomed  to  cold  and  hard,  "  bone  " 
labor,  patient,  and  satisfied  with  small  returns  in  the  ab- 
sence of  better.  They  are  sometimes  spoken  of  sneer- 
ingly,  but  that  is  a  mistake.  They  have  their  share  of 
the  good  things  here,  and,  with  the  Norwegians,  are  often 
well-educated. 

The  old-timer  is  punctilious  in  the  matter  of  washing 
dishes  and  clothes  as  far  as  that  is  practicable.  Every 
cabin  has  its  wash-tub  and  wash-board,  and  once  a  week 
the  woollens  are  changed  and  scrubbed.  He  gives  more 
care  to  the  quality  of  his  food  and  to  its  preparation  than 
the  new-comer,  for  he  has  learned  by  experience  that  it 
pays  to  do  so.  , 

Although  the  trading  companies  agree  between  them- 
selves on  prices — the  highest  that  the  miner  can  pay — • 
still  the  competition  is  so  keen  that  the  quality  of  food 
is  the  very  best.  The  old-timer  never  speculates  in  food. 
One  who  is  better  supplied  lets  his  neighbor  have  flour 
at  the  price  it  cost  him  in  the  store. 
The  old-timer  is  often  bitter  against  the  new-comers. 

267    , 


Z 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

He  wonders  what  will  become  of  the  country  and  of 
them.  What  a  change  !  Four  years  ago,  if  you  told  a 
man  in  Seattle  you  were  going  into  the  Yukon,  he  would 
set  you  down  as  a  crazy  fool. 

The  trouble  seems  to  be  that  the  old-timer  has  come 
to  regard  the  country  as  his  own,  and  naturally  resents 
innovations,  particularly  those  just  now  associated  with 
"government,"  which  they  may  well  do,  as  "govern- 
ment" had  small  use  for  the  country  until  they,  the 
old-timers,  by  their  own  hands  proved  it  to  be  rich. 
The  greater  number  of  the  older  miners  are  Americans, 
or  have  imbibed  American  ideas. 

In  Circle  City  no  man  was  called  an  "old-timer"  un- 
less he  had  come  in  with  the  first  rush  of  sixteen  years 
ago.  The  old  Cassiar  men  are  here,  but  not  many  are 
owners  of  claims.  When  Klondike  was  struck,  they  said 
to  their  younger  friends,  "Don't  be  foolish  ;  that  country 
has  been  overrun  by  old  California  and  Cassiar  miners 
for  ten  years,  and  don't  you  go  there  a  cJicchaliko*  and 
expect  to  get  rich."  The  country  had  to  look  just 
right,  the  willows  had  to  lean  a  certain  way,  to  suit 
these  old,  bearded  men.  In  the  "  lower  country  "  to  what 
we  should  call  "old  fogies"  the  irreverent  name  of  ".sour- 
dough stiffs"  was  given. 

I  heard  an  old-timer  confess  that  "  the  longer  a  man 
stays  in  this  country  the  less  he  knows.  If  he  stays  liere 
long  enough  he  gets  so  he  don't  know  nawthin." 

He  has  his  (nvn  strict  ideas  of  morality.  Theft  was  as 
great  a  crime  as  murder,  and  when  either  happened, 
which  was  rarely,  a  miners'  meeting  was  called,  the  ac- 
cused was  given  a  chance  to  be  heard,  and  then  by  a 
vote  the  decision  was  rendered  swiftly  and  surely.     If 


*  Chinook  jargon,  meaning  "  new-comer." 
268 


TOPICS   OF   CONVERvSATION 


guilty,  he  had  to  leave  the  country  at  once.  Hoiv  he  left 
was  a  matter  of  no  concern.  He  had  to  leave!  Gam- 
bling was  regarded  as  a  legitimate  amusement,  but  it  did 
not  mean  that  they  all  gambled.  They  considered  that 
any  one  who  chose  to  spend  his  money  that  way  was  as 
free  to  do  so  as  in  any  other.  But  if  he  could,but  would 
not,  pay  his  debts,  the  recalcitrant  was  requested  by  a 
miners'  meeting  to 
settle — and  he  did. 
The  professional 
gambler  is  respect- 
ed as  any  other 
man  who  behaves 
himself,  only  he  is 
considered  in  the 
light  of  a  non-pro- 
ducer, and  not  in 
the  same  class  or 
entitled  to  the 
same  consideration 
as  a  prospector  or  a 
miner.  A  man  who 
thoroughly  knows 
the  spirit  of  his  fel- 
low -  miners  says: 
"  Here    the    man 

who  patronizes  a  saloon  and  the  man  who  goes  to  church 
are  on  the  same  footing."  A  startling  statement,  but 
none  the  less  true. 

There  is  a  dearth  of  blood-curdling  tales  that  are  ex- 
pected to  be  the  stock  of  every  mining-camp.  The  Yukon 
has  been  too  law  -  abiding  for  many  stories  of  violence. 
The  rigors  of  the  country  and  the  broadening  effect  of 
the  life  have  made  men  behave  themselves.     The  police 

269 


WASH-DAY 


1:1 


h 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPT^.DE 

have  not,  as  is  claimed,  brought  about  this  condition.  It 
existed  before  there  were  any  police  here.  The  cold 
weather,  the  poor  grub  and  little  of  it,  incidents  of  a 
hard  trip  with  dogs,  the  time  there  was  no  butter  in 
Circle  City — these  constitute  about  the  whole  stock  of 
conversation. 

One  night  at  No.  7  Eldorado,  Fred  Hutchinson's  and 
Louis  Empkins's  claim,  after  work,  a  neighbor  dropped  in 


A  nOTTI.E  wiNixnv 


for  a  visit.  He  was  a  thin,  solemn  Irishman,  past  middle 
age,  with  a  red  face,  red,  drooping  mustache,  and  a  red 
marten-skin  cap.  He  was  introduced  to  us  as  "Red" 
Sullivan.  Sullivan  began  to  relate  how  they  had  found 
a  nugget  that  day  on  the  claim  where  he  was  working. 

"  Mike  Young  sees  something  bright  like  a  pea  in  the 
bucket,  and  he  brushed  it  off,  and  it  kept  gittin'  bigger 

270 


"RED"    SULLIVAN 


and  bigger,  and  he  pulled  it  out.  You  know  Mike — 
nuthin'  ever  gits  Mike  excited,  a  regiment  of  soldiers 
wouldn't  git  Mike  excited.  He  picked  it  up  and  come  to 
the  hole  and  hollered  down,  '  I've  found  a  nugget !' 
*  How  much  ?'  I  says.  '  It  may  be  forty,  and  it  may  be 
fifty.'  '  (iosh  darn,'  says  I, 'it'll  go  a  Iiundcr  and  fifty.' 
It  went  two  hundred  and  twelve.  It  was  like  a  frog. 
I  called  it  'The  Frog.'  I  told  him  to  take  it  to  De- 
mars  (a  Frenchman  who  owns  No.  8),  and  he'd  give  him 
double  the  price.     Say,  he'll  kick  him  out  of  the  house." 

"Red"  didn't  know  what  would  become  of  the  new- 
comers. "They  go  out  with  toothpick  shoes,  fore-and- 
aft  caps,  half  a  pound  of  grub,  and  a  bandanna  handker- 
chief."    Not  much  like  an  old-timer. 

A  man's  real  name  is  not  of  much  consequence  in  this 
country.  Not  half  a  dozen  men  in  camp  know  that  "old 
man  Harper's"  fiont  name  is  Arthur.  Like  as  not  some 
peculiarity  of  manner  or  appearance  has  instantaneously 
fixed  a  nickname  upon  a  man,  and  the  name  has  clung. 
"Swiftwater  Bill"  was  i)lain  William  Gates.  "Nigger 
Jim"  in  civilization  was  James  Dougherty.  And  there 
is  "Happy  Jack,"  "Circle  City  Mickey,"  "Long  Shorty," 
"  Kink  "  Miller, "  French  Curly,"  "  Skiff  "  Mitchell,"  Siwash 
George,"  "  Ilootchinoo  Albert,"  "  Tom  the  Horse,"  "  Dog- 
Salnion  Bob,"  etc. 

"Nick"  GofT  was  one  of  those  old-timers.  Sixteen 
years  ago  he  came  into  the  Yukon,  and  has  never  once 
been  "  outside."  For  forty  years  altogether  he  has  lived 
in  the  mines,  and  it  is  alleged  that  in  all  his  life  he  never 
saw  a  railroad  train.  Last  year  he  was  asked  why  he 
didn't  take  a  trip  out  to  San  Francisco  for  his  health  and 
see  the  sights,  among  the  other  things  the  fine  hotels, 
where  everything  that  a  man  could  desire  was  done  for 
his  comfort.     Nick  listened   attentively,  and  when  the 

271 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 


speaker  was  done  he  said:  "You  say  they  don't  let  a 
man  cook  his  own  meals  and  make  his  own  bed  ?"  "Why, 
no."  "Then  I  ain't  goin' to  no  place  where  I  can't  cook 
my  own  meals  and  make  my  own  bed,"  and  he  didn't  go. 
Their  sense  of  honor  in  the  matter  of  debts  is  most 
strict,  but,  as  unbusiness-like  people  often  are,  they  are 
"  touchy "  about  the  presentation  of  a  bill.     This  was 

one  of  the  innovations  of 
the  new  "  N.  A.  T."  Com- 
pany which  they  inwardly 
resented.  McQuesten  gave 
credit  whenever  it  was 
asked,  and  there  is  not  a  sin- 
gle instance  where  the  bill 
was  not  paid  when  it  was 
possible  to  do  so.  It  was  a 
keen  understanding  of  the 
old-timer,  his  good  traits 
and  his  prejudices,  that  en- 
deared McQuesten  to  them, 
so  that  they  spoke  of  him 
before  any  other  man  as  the 
"  Father  of  the  Yukon." 
The  credit  system,  while  it  often  enabled  the  miners 
to  tide  a  poor  season,  in  the  long  run  was  neither  to 
the  advantage  of  the  miner  nor  the  company.  Half  of 
Circle  City  was  in  debt  to  McQuesten,  and  the  miners 
turned  their  cabins  over  to  the  company  when  they 
stampeded  for  Klondike.  As  in  the  case  of  that  other 
great  monopolist,  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company,  a  nominal 
indebtedness  on  the  books  did  not  imply  an  actual  loss, 
only  so  much  less  profit.  As  long  as  a  man  was  in  debt 
he  would  not  leave  the  country,  and  as  long  as  he  stayed 
there  the  company  was  sure  in  time  of  getting  about  all 

272 


IIAIR-CUTTINO 


THE    OLD-TIMER 


he  made,  so  that  it  was  to  the  interest  of  the  company 
to  keep  a  man  in  debt.  The  advent  of  the  new  com- 
pany at  Forty-Mile,  in  1892,  immediately  reduced  prices, 
and  compelled  the  supplying  of  better  goods.  Both  com- 
panies undertook  to  do  away  with  the  credit  system,  but 
neither  company  has  strictly  enforced  the  rule. 

Hut  with  all  his  whims  and  prejudices,  the  old-timer 
might  serve  as  a  model  for  courage  and  manliness  and 
honor  to  some  who  pretend  more.  At  the  mines  he  is  in- 
dustrious and  hard-working.  It  is  only  when  he  occa- 
sionally goes  to  town  with  a  sack  that  he  relaxes  into  often 
reckless  dissipation.  But  when  one  has  lived  the  dreary 
life,  he  has  little  blame  in  his  heart  for  him  who  returns 
with  empty  "  poke"  and  no  apparent  increase  of  wisdom. 

The  old-timers  have  been  called  "nondescripts."  The 
new-comers  are  more  distinguishable  —  photographers, 
newspaper  men,  physicians,  mining  engineers,  farmers, 
lumbermen,  and  clerks.  On  one  claim  not  far  below  Dis- 
covery, on  Bonanza,  a  Salvation  Army  captain  worked 
down  in  the  hole,  an  ex-missionary  turned  the  windlass 
and  dumped  the  bucket,  an  archdeacon  of  the  Church  cf 
England  worked  the  rocker  in  the  cabin,  while  the  cook 
was  a  young  man  who  had  dealt  faro. 

I  asked  an  old  miner,  foreman  on  a  Bonanza  claim, 
how  Klondike  compared  with  other  places  he  had  been 
in?  He  had  been  in  California  in  1852,  and  had  mined 
in  different  parts  of  the  world  for  fifty  years.  Said  he : 
*'  In  the  Caribou  country  I  saw  113  ounces  [about  $1921] 
of  gold  taken  up  in  one  pan  of  dirt,  and  I  saw  102  pounds 
cleaned  up  in  an  eight-hour  shift  by  five  men.*     But 


■■  I- 


*  Equivalent  to  about  1545— one  man  shovelling  one  hour. 
Assuming  a  rate  of  not  over  three  hundred  shovels  an  hour,  t!ie 
dirt  would  go  about  $i.Soto  the  shovel =$3.60  to  the  pan— phe- 
nomenally rich. 

s  273 


i 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

it  was  very  limited,  not  over  a  mile  of  the  rich  dirt." 
"Was  it  richer  in  Caribou  than  California?"  "I  have 
seen  spots  in  California — Scott's  Bar,  on  Scott's  River, 
Siskiyou  County — as  rich  as  any  in  Caribou.  Australia 
does  not  compare,  for  the  claims  there  are  only  ten  feet 
square.  Thousands  would  be  taken  out  of  some  holes, 
but  it  was  in  spots  ;  some  would  get  nothing." 

We  spent  a  week  on  Eldorado  and  Bonanza,  returning 
to  our  own  cabin  with  a  new  experience  and  a  higher  ap- 
preciation of  the  character  of  the  class  of  men  who  ex- 
plored and  developed  the  Yukon. 


DUMl'ING  THE  UUCKET 


CHAPTER  XIV 


Story  of  the  Klondike  Discovery  and  the  Stampede  from  Forty-Mile  and 
Circle  City — Who  Discovered  the  Klonilike? — Ill-fortune  of  i\()l)ert 
Henderson,  the  Discoverer 


D 


,  AME  FORTUNE  was  never  in  more  ca- 
pricious mood  than  when  the  golden 
treasures  of  the  Klondike  were  ripe 
for  discovery.  The  true  story  of  tiuit 
time,  although  so  recent,  is  still  obscured  by 
the  mists  of  uncertainty  and  contradiction, 
and  there  are  still  small  points  which  the 
long  and  patient  investigation  I  gave  to  the 
matter  has  not  been  able  to  clear  up — such 
as  exact  dates— and  it  is  doubtful  that  these 
ever  will  be.  The  first  news  of  the  discovery  that  reached 
the  outside  —  even  the  official  reports  of  Mr.  Ogilvie  — 
generally  gave  the  credit  of  the  discovery  entirely  to  one 
Carmack,  or  "McCormick,"  as  the  miners  call  him.  The 
story  is  fascinating  from  beginning  to  end,  and  in  mak- 
ing this  contribution  to  the  history  of  that  time  I  have 
been  animated  not  less  by  a  desire  to  gather  together  the 
scattered  ends  of  report  and  hearsay  than  that  tardy 
credit  may  be  given  to  another  man  whom  fortune,  never 
more  unkind,  has  thus  far  deprived  of  material  compen- 
sation for  a  generous  act  and  years  of  patient  work. 

The  Klondike  River  had  l>een  known  for  many  years, 
being  only  six  miles  from  Fort  Reliance,  McOuesten's 

275 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

first  post.  According  to  Lieutenant  Frederick  Sclnvat- 
ka,  who  passed  its  moutli  in  iSS^,  it  was  known  to  the 
traders  as  "  Deer  River."  Hoth  Harper  and  McOuesten 
hunted  moose  in  the  present  Bonanza  Creek  on  the  site 
of  Discovery.  Si.xteen  years  ago  a  party  of  prospectors, 
among  whom  was  General  Carr,  now  of  the  State  of 


PROSPECTORS    IN   CAMP    IN    SIMMKR 


Washington,  camped  on  the  present  Eldorado  Creek. 
Other  parties  passed  down  the  Klondike  from  the  head- 
waters of  Stewart  River  about  the  year  iS86,  but  the 
river  from  its  general  appearance  was  not  considered  a 
gold-bearing  stream,  so  year  after  year  it  was  passed  by 
for  the  more  favored  diggings  of  Forty-Mile  and  Birch 
Creek. 

In  the  year  1890,  one  Joe  Ladue,  a  French  Canadian 

276 


"  R  ()  B  H  I  li  "   H  E  N  U  E  R  S  O  N 


originally  from  Plattsburg,  New  York,  an  agent  of  the 
Alaska  Commercial  Company,  decided  to  establish  an 
independent  trading  and  outfitting  {.  .  Recognizing 
that  his  only  chance  was  to  grow  up  wuv  a  new  region, 
and  having  faith  that  other  creeks  woald  be  discovered 
as  rich  as  the  Forty-Mile  diggings  '  e  built  the  ^ost,  in- 
cluding a  saw -mill  in  partnership  with  .\Ir.  Harper,  at 
the  mouth  of  Sixty  -  Mile  River,  and  Vegan  recommend 
ing  all  new  -  comers  to  prospect  the  bars  or  surface 
diggings  of  the  latter  stream,  but  more  especially  of  Ind- 
ian Creek  or  River,  a  stream  entering  the  Yukon  on 
the  right  or  east  side  about  twenty-five  miles  below  his 
post,  and  thirty -three  above  the  now  abandoned  Fort 
Reliance.  For  telling  so-called  "lies,"  especially  about 
Indian  Creek,  Ladue  was  almost  driven  from  Forty-Mile 
by  the  irate  miners. 

In  the  summer  of  1894,  among  the  crowd  drawn  in  by 
the  glowing  reports  from  the  Forty -Mile  district  was 
one  Robert  Henderson,  hailing  from  the  mines  of  Aspen, 
Colorado,  of  Scotch  parentage,  but  a  Canadian  by  birth, 
his  father  being  lighthouse-keeper  at  Big  Island,  Pictou 
County,  Nova  Scotia.  He  was  a  rugged,  earnest  man, 
some  thirty  -  seven  years  of  age,  six  feet  tall,  with  clear 
blue  eyes.  From  boyhood  he  had  been  of  an  adventurous 
disposition,  with  a  passion  for  gold-hunting  that  showed 
itself  even  at  his  Big  Island  home  in  solitary  excursions 
about  his  bleak  fisherman  :-  isle,  in  which  **  Robbie,"  us 
he  was  called,  was  always  looking  for  gold.  Henderson 
had  but  ten  cents  in  his  pocket  when  he  reached  Ladue's 
post.  Hearing  what  Ladue  was  saying  about  good  dig- 
gings on  Indian  River,  he  said  to  Ladue  :  "I'm  a  deter- 
mined man.  I  won't  starve.  Let  me  prospect  for  you. 
If  it's  good  for  me,  it's  good  for  you."  Ladue  gave  him 
a  a;rub-stake,  and  Henderson  went  upon  Indian  River 

277 


is 


I 


l! 


m 


THE    KLONDIKE   STAMPEDE 

and  found  it  exactly  as  Ladue  had  said.  He  could  make 
"  wages,"  working  the  surface  bars.  On  that  account,  he 
did  not  desert  it  for  the  just  then  more  popular  fields  of 
Forty-Mile  and  Birch  creeks,  but  determined  to  try  again. 
With  the  experience  of  a  miner,  he  knew  that  farther 


ROBERT    IIKNDERSON 


on  towards  the  heads  of  the  tribdtnries  of  Indian  River 
he  would  probably  find  coarse  gold,  though  perhaps  not 
on  the  surface,  as  it  was  on  the  river.  Accordingly,  the 
next  summer  found  Henderson  again  on  Indian  River. 
He  pushed  on,  and  found  "  leaf "  gold  on  what  is  new 
known  as  "  Australia  Creek,"  one  of  the  main  forks  of 

278 


FIRST  GOLD  TAKEN  OUT  OF  KLONDIKE 


ike 
he 
;of 
lin. 
her 


Liver 
i  not 
,  the 
iver. 
nr  vv 
Ics  of 


Indian  River,  seventy -five  or  eighty  miles  from  the 
Yukon,  one  piece  being,  he  says,  as  large  as  his  thumb- 
nail. Had  he  gone  up  the  other  fork  sufficiently  far  he 
would  have  discovered  the  lich  diggings  of  Dominion 
and  Sulphur  creeks.  He  returned  to  Sixty  -  Mile,  and 
when  winter  came  he  put  his  goods  on  a  sled,  returned 
to  Indian  River,  and  went  up  Quartz  Creek,  a  tributary 
of  Indian  River  on  the  north,  forty  miles  from  the  Yukon, 
Having  had  no  dogs  to  help  him,  it  was  a  very  hard  trip. 
It  took  thirty  days  for  him  to  reach  Quartz  Creek.  He 
worked  all  winter  on  Quartz  Creek,  and  took  out  about 
$500,  another  $100  and  more  being  taken  out  later  by 
other  parties  from  the  same  hole.  In  the  spring  he  went 
back  up  in  the  direction  of  Australia  Creek,  getting  only 
fair  prospects,  nothing  that  warranted  the  "opening  up" 
of  a  claim.  During  this  time  Henderson  was  alone,  hav- 
ing no  partner,  and  depending  mainly  on  the  game  that 
fell  to  his  rifle.  Returning  from  the  head  of  the  river 
he  went  up  Quartz  Creek  again.  This  time  he  cast  eyes 
longingly  towards  the  ridge  of  hill  at  the  head  of  Quartz 
Creek  separating  the  waters  of  Indian  River  from  those 
of  the  then  almost  unknown  Klondike  River.  Cross- 
ing over  the  short,  sharp  divide  (it  is  so  sharp  that  if  a  cup- 
ful of  water  were  poured  upon  the  crest,  one  half  would 
run  one  way,  the  other  half  the  other  way),  he  dropped 
down  into  a  deep-cleft  valley  of  a  small  stream  running 
northward.  He  prospected,  and  found  eight  cents  to  the 
pan!  That  meant  "wages";  such  a  prospect  was  then 
considered  good.  Enthusiastic  over  the  find,  Henderson 
went  back  over  the  divide.  There  were  about  twenty 
men  on  Indian  River,  working  mostly  on  the  bars  at  the 
mouth  of  Quartz  Creek,  some  of  them  doing  fairly  well. 
Henderson  persuaded  three  of  the  men  —  Ed  Munson, 
Frank  Swanson,  and  Albert  Dalton — to  go  back  with  him. 

279 


1 1 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

The  four  men  took  over  whip-saws,  sawed  himber, 
built  sluice  -  boxes,  and  "opened  up"  a  claim  in  regular 
fashion  about  a  quarter  of  a  mile  below  the  forks  —  a 
spot  plainly  visible  from  the  divide — and  began  shovel- 
ling in  the  gold-bearing  dirt. 

He  named  the  stream  "  Gold  Bottom."  It  lay  parallel 
with  the  present  Bonanza  Creek  and  entered  the  Klon- 
dike River  about  nine  miles  from  its  mouth.    The  amount 


MOUTH   OK    KLONDIKE    RIVER    AT   TIME   OK   THE   STRIKE — CHIEK  ISAAC'S 
♦  SALMON-RACKS 


that  they  shovelled  in  on  Gold  Bottom  Creek  was  $750, 
and  that  ivas  the  first  gold  taken  out  of  Khndike.  It  was 
equally  divided  between  the  four  men.  Now  if  a  person 
had  stood  on  the  crest  of  the  ridge  and  looked  to  the 
westward,  he  would  have  seen  the  valley  of  another  large 
creek.  That  creek  had  never  been  prospected,  but  was 
known  as  "Rabbit  Creek";  it  was  so  close  to  Gold 
Bottom  Creek  that  if  one  knows  just  the  right  spot  on 
the  divide,  the   cup  of  water  would    run  not  only  into 


SIWASH   GEORGE" 


'Indian  River  and  Gold  Bottom  Creek,  but  also  into  the 
source  of  this  "  Rabbit  Creek."  For  in  this  manner  the 
heads  of  a  number  of  streams  lie  together,  as  the  spokes 
of  a  wheel  around  the  hub. 

Early  in  August  the  party  ran  out  of  provisions,  and, 
leaving  the  others  at  work,  Henderson  went  down  Indian 
River  and  back  to  Sixty-Mile.  There  were  about  a  dozen 
men  at  the  post  and  at  Harper  &  Ladue's  saw-mill,  also  a 
party  who  were  on  their  way  to  Stewart  River.  Hender- 
son told  them  what  he  had  found.  He  persuaded  the  Stew- 
art River  party  to  turn  back,  telling  them  they  would 
have  to  look  for  it,  whereas  he  had  found  it.  Ladue  at 
once  sent  two  horses  overland  with  supplies,  and  all  the 
others  went  with  them  excepting  Ladue.  Henderson 
repaired  his  boat,  and  with  some  supplies  started  down 
river,  leaving  Ladue  to  follow  him.  On  account  of  low 
water  he  was  unable  to  return 
up  Indian  River ;  besides,  it 
was  nearer  by  the  mouth  of 
the  Klondike  River. 

It  was  the  fishing  season. 
The  salmon  in  the  Yukon  are 
very  plentiful  in  August. 
Chief  Isaac's  Indians  were  tak- 
ing the  salmon  in  weirs  and 
drying  them  on  racks  in  the 
sun. 

Across  from  the  Indian  vil- 
lage and  a  few  hundred  yards 
below  the  mouth  of  the  river 

were  the  tents  of  a  little  party  consisting  of  a  white  man 
and  some  Indians — a  squaw,  two  Indian  men,  and  a  boy. 
The  white  man's  name  was  George  Washington  Carmack ; 
the  squaw  was  his  wife ;  the  Indian  men  were  respectively 

ati 


CKORCE    W.   CARMACK 


i    i 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 


Skookum  Jim  and  Cultus  (worthless)  or  "  Takish " 
Charlie,  while  the  boy  was  named  K'neth — all  Takish* 
Indians.  Charlie  was  a  big  chief  of  the  Takish.  Jim 
would  have  been  chief,  being  the  son  of  the  former  chief. 

but  among  the  Takish  the  de- 
scent is  through  the  chief's  sis- 
ter. Jim  and  Charlie,  therefore, 
though  called  brothers,  were 
really  cousins,  and  were  called 
brothers-in-law  of  Carmack. 
This  Carmack  was  originally  a 
sailor  on  a  man-of-war,  but  had 
taken  up  his  abode  with  the 
Chilkoots  at  Dyea  and  mar- 
ried a  Takish  wife.  Carmack 
liked  the  life  with  the  Indians, 
and  it  used  to  be  said  that 
one  couldn't  please  him  more 
than  to  say,  "Why,  George, 
you're  getting  every  day  more  like  a  Siwash !"  "Siwash 
George"  was  the  name  by  which  he  became  generally 
known.  Carmack  had  made  excursions  over  the  pass 
years  before,  and  both  he  and  the  Indians,  who  were 
his  inseparable  companions,  knew  somewhat  of  mining, 
though  they  could  hardly  be  called  miners. 

Carmack  was  outfitted  by  John  J.  Healy,  who  was  then 
at  Dyea  to  trade  with  the  Takish  and  other  interior 
Indians.  Carmack  built  a  post,  still  called  "  McCor- 
mick's  Post,"  situated  on  the  bank  of  the  Yukon,  about 
twenty  miles  above  Five-Finger  Rapids.  Any  one  who 
took  the  trouble  to  stop  there  might  have  seen  fastened 
against  one  of  the  rude  log  buildings  a  paper  with  some 


SKOOKUM   JIM 


*  Same  as  Tagish — pronounced  Tah-kecsk, 
282 


CARMACK    IS   PERSUADED 


writing  upon  it :  "Gone  to  Forty-Mile  for  grub."  Under 
the  floor  they  might  have  found  a  bear-skin  robe  and 
some  other  things,  left  there  when  he  started  down  river 
on  the  journey  that  was  to  make  the  name  of  Klondike 
known  to  the  whole  world.  This  notice  was  put  up  in 
the  summer  of  1895. 

The  white  man  and  Indians  secured  an  outfit  at  Fort 
Selkirk  from  Mr.  Harper.  The  following  spring  Car- 
mack  dropped  down  to  Forty  -  Mile,  but  presently  re- 
turned as  far  as  the  mouth  of  the  Klondike  for  the 
fishing,  where  he  was  joined  by  his  Indians.*  They 
set  their  nets  just  below  the  mouth  of  the  Klondike, 
and  were  drying  and  curing  their  catch,  Indian  fashion, 
when  Henderson  came  along,  on  his  way  to  Gold  Bottom. 

As  Henderson's  boat  touched  shore  he  saw  Carmack. 
"  There,"  he  thought,  "  is  a  poor  devil  who  hasn't  struck 
it."  He  went  down  to  where  Carmack  was,  told  him 
of  his  prospects  on  Gold  Bottom,  and  said  to  him  that 
he  had  better  come  up  and  stake.  At  first  Carmack  did 
not  want  to  go,  but  Henderson  urged.  At  length  Car- 
mack consented  to  go,  but  wanted  to  take  the  Klondike 
Indians  up  also,  as  well  as  his  own.  Henderson  demurred 
at  that,  and,  being  frank,  may  have  said  something  not 
complimentary  about  "Siwashes"  in  general.  It  has 
been  reported  that  Henderson  said  he  "didn't  intend 
to  stake  the  whole  Siwash  tribe,"  and  he  added,  "  I  want 
to  give  the  preference  to  my  old  Sixty-Mile  friends." 
What  effect  this  may  have  had  on  subsequent  events  I 
do  not  know ;  I  can  only  surmise  that  it  did  have  some. 

Next  morning  Henderson  went  on  to   his   claim   on 


h  1 


HI 


*  Another  white  man,  named  Fritz  Kloke,  was  also  there  fishing, 
and  was  drying  fisli  under  a  rough  shed  of  poles  covered  with 
canvas,  whicli  may  be  called  the  first  wiiite  man's  building  on  the 
site  of  what  is  now  Uawson. 

2S3 


r  '' 


n. 


r 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

Gold  Bottom.  Carmack  with  two  Indians  followed  soon, 
but,  instead  of  taking  the  circuitous  route  by  the  mouth 
of  Gold  Bottom,  A/ent  up  "  Rabbit  Creek."  Carmack  ar- 
rived soon  after  Henderson,  and  showed  some  "colors" 
of  gold  that  he  had  found  on  "  Rabbit  Creek."  "  Colors  " 
and  "pay"  are  by  no  means  to  be  confounded.  Traces, 
or  "colors,"  of  gold  are  to  be  found  almost  everywhere. 
The  Indians  and  Carmack  staked  each  a  claim  on  Gold 
Bottom.  When  they  were  ready  to  go,  Henderson  asked 
Carmack  if  he  intended  to  prospect  on  the  way  back,  to 
which  he  replied  that  he  did.  Then  Henderson  asked 
him,  if  he  found  anything,  to  send  back  one  of  his 
Indians,  saying  that  he  had  gold,  and  that  he  would 
pay  him  for  the  trouble ;  which,  Henderson  asserts, 
Carmack  said  he  .vould  do. 

Leaving  Henderson  and  his  partners  at  work,  Car- 
mack returned  homeward  as  he  came.  A  few  miles'  walk 
along  the  bald  crest  of  the  divide  brought  him  into  the 
forks  of  "  Rabbit  Creek,"  some  distance  from  its  head. 
Five  miles  beyond,  in  the  thick  spruce  -  timbered  valley, 
a  tributary  about  as  large  as  "  Rabbit  Creek"  puts  in  on 
the  left-hand  side. 

About  half  a  mile  below  this  large  tributary  the  party 
stopped  to  rest.  They  had  been  panning  here  and  there. 
Carmack,  it  is  said,  went  to  sleep  ;  Skookum  Jim,  taking 
the  pan,  went  to  the  "rim"  of  the  valley  at  the  foot  of 
a  birch-tree  and  filled  it  with  dirt.  Washing  it  in  the 
creek,  he  found  a  large  showing  of  gold.  Right  "  under 
the  grass-roots,"  Jim  said,  he  found  from  ten  cents  to 
one  dollar  to  the  pu.i.  In  a  little  while,  it  is  said,  they 
filled  a  shot-gun  cartridge  with  coarse  gold.  A  strange 
circumstance  was  that  this  gold  was  not  from  bed-rock, 
which  was  many  feet  below  the  surface,  nor  even  the 
present  creek-bed,  but,  unsuspected   by  them,  had  slid 

2S4 


I 


■y. 


7i 


^^jKJUHBIF'ilCl'''  ir  \  kn^^^^^HH 

^^BH^M>F^-'i*p  B\f  ■  r  tr  vJbI^^^I^^^H 

PSnKP«l ./ 

». 

K^^By^il^B^'  ,^ 

,>;   -      ■ 

^ 

k            ' 

'^idi^^^^^^i^y  i^^^^^^^^l 

f.i(2^J  jj^H^PQflylf^^:  ^^^^^^^^B 

^^^HE^^r^^^^^Bii' '' '^Jf^'    ■  '4I^^^^^I^^^^^^^^^^H 

•^fWy^U^  ^             r-^^^^^^H 

^^.wMKm^^st^\  ji^HH^^^H 

U.  ■.  : V  7^  T^...              ^n  rxBf    '.      'Wi^io^.                                                                 ' 

niyiy^H^^^^^^H 

^^Mfel'm/JMi^alS^^Hfa^^^^^H^^^^^^H 

r  jM^^g^H 

i 


THE   GREAT    DISCOVERY 


M 


down  from  the  "  bench,"  or  hill-side,  a  kind  of  diggings 
which  were  unknown  at  that  time.  Carmack  staJced  off 
Discovery  (a  double  claim)  for  himself,  and  five  hundred 
feet  above  and  below  for  his  two  Indian  companions, 
Skookum  Jim  taking  No.  i  above  Discovery,  and  Cultus 
Charlie  No.  i  below.  The  date  of  this  is  variously  given 
as  the  1 6th  and  17th  of  August,  the  former  date  being 
generally  regarded  as  the  probable  one. 

After  staking,  they  hastened  to  Forty-Mile,  forgetting 
their  promise  to  Henderson,  who  by  every  moral  right 
was  entitled  to  a  claim  near  the  rich  ground  they  un- 
doubtedly had  discovered.  They  recorded  their  claims 
before  Inspector  Constantine,  the  recorder  or  acting  gold 
commissioner,  and  named  the  creek  "Bonanza." 

Carmack's  own  story  of  "$2.50  to  the  pan"  was  not  be- 
lieved, though  it  was  not  doubted  that  he  had  found 
gold.  A  stampede  followed.  Drunken  men  were  thrown 
into  boats.  One  man  was  tied  and  made  to  go  along.  But 
there  was  no  excitement  beyond  what  attends  a  stam- 
pede for  locations  on  any  creek  on  which  gold  has  been 
found.  There  are  always  persons  about  a  mining  camp 
ready  to  start  on  a  stampede  simply  as  a  chance,  wheth- 
er good  prospects  have  been  found  or  not.  Whole  creeks 
have  been  staked  out  in  the  belief  that  gold  would  sub- 
sequently be  found.  So  the  excitement  of  this  earlier 
stage  was  of  small  significance.  It  was  that  of  the  pro- 
fessional "  stampeder,"  so  to  speak — rounders  about  the 
saloons,  some  new  arrivals,  but  few  old  miners,  the  latter 
being  still  in  the  diggings  up  the  creek. 

The  first  persons  to  arrive  at  the  scene  of  the  new  dis- 
covery began  staking  down-stream.  That  also  was  a 
"  stampeder's  "  custom.  The  chances  were  considered 
better  there  than  above.  It  is  all  nonsense,  the  talk  now 
of  persons  who  would  have  one   believe  they  "  got   in 

287 


. 


w 


T 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

on  choice  locations  "  by  reason  of  superior  foresight. 
It  was  blind  luck.  The  staking  went  on  down-stream  for 
six  miles,  and  then  began  above,  and  continued  for  seven 
or  eight  miles  up-stream  before  the  side  gulches,  or 
"pups,"  as  they  are  called,  were  thought  of  seriously. 

Ladue,  who  had  started  for  the  mouth  of  the  Klondike 
behind  Hender.son,  was  among  the  first  to  hear  of  Car- 
mack's  strike.  Ladue  staked  a  town-site  at  the  mouth  of 
the  Klondike  and  started  for  Forty-Mile,  but,  meeting  a 
man  who  wanted  some  lumber,  he  sent  on  his  application 
by  another  party,  returning  to  the  mill  at  Sixty-Mile, 
and  soon  after  returned  to  the  mouth  of  the  Klondike 
with  n."'ls,  spikes,  and  lumber,  built  a  rough  warehouse, 
just  opposite  the  present  Alaska  Commercial  Company's 
warehouse,  22x40  feet,  And  a  cabin — the  first  in  Dawson 
— the  name  given  the  new  town  by  the  surveyor,  Mr. 
Ogilvie,  in  honor  of  his  chief.  Dr.  George  M.  Dawson, 
director  of  the  Canadian  Geological  Survey.  The  Alaska 
Commercial  Company's  steamer  Arctic  having  by  this 
time  reached  Forty-Mile,  bound  for  Fort  Selkirk,  pushed 
on  through  the  ice  that  was  running  in  the  river  to  the 
new  town,  arriving  in  September  with  a  few  miners  and 
a  very  limited  amount  of  supplies.  After  discharging, 
she  hurried  back  to  Forty-Mile,  but  was  frozen  in  be- 
fore she  could  be  placed  in  a  safe  place,  and  tne  next 
spring,  in  trying  to  get  her  free  of  the  ice  before  she 
was  crushed,  a  stick  of  dynamite,  intended  for  the  ice, 
destroyed  her. 

Among  the  first  to  hear  of  the  strike  were  four  men 
from  up  river — Dan  McGilvray,  Dave  McKay,  Dave  Ed- 
wards, and  Harry  Waugh — and  they  located  Nos.  3,  14, 
15,  and  16  below  Discovery.  These  men  did  the  Ji'rst 
sluicing  that  was  done  on  the  creek,  and  they  made  the 
first  clean-up,  with  five  boxes  set.     The  figures  are  lack- 

288 


KLONDIKE    EXACiGERATlON 

ing  for  their  first  shovelling,  but  on  the  second  they  cleaned 
up  thirteen  and  a  half  ounces  of  gold  ($329.50),  being  five 
hours'  work  of  one  man  shovelling.  The  gold  varied  from 
the  size  of  pinheads  to  nuggets,  one  of  $12  being  found. 
Now  the  Klondike  magnifier  began  his  work,  with  this 
curious  result,  that  the  "  lies  "  of  to-day  were  surpassed 
by  the  truth  of  to-morrow,  until  it  came  to  be  accepted 
that,  "  You  can't  tell  no  lies  about  Klondike."  McGil- 
vrayand  the  rest  had  perhaps  $1500 — surely  a  large  sum 
for  the  time  th'jy  had  worked.  Ladue  weighed  the  gold, 
and  as  he  came  out  of  the  store  he  said  to  some  assem- 
bled miners,  "  How's  that  for  two  and  a  half  days'  shov- 
elling-in — ;|4oo8?"  The  liability  to  exaggeration  about  a 
mining  camp  is  so  great  that  it  is  impossible  for  any  one 
to  escape  who  writes  or  speaks  in  the  midst  of  affairs 
concerning  any  specific  find.  A  man  with  a  town-site 
must  also  be  allowed  a  great  deal  of  latitude  in  such 
matters.  But  soon  the  joke  was  on  the  other  side.  Men 
actually  on  the  spot  would  not  believe  anything  they 
heard.  Two  of  the  men  working  on  Indian  River  came 
down  and  heard  of  the  strike.  Said  one  to  his  partner, 
"  Shall  we  go  up  and  stake  ?"  Replied  the  other,  "  Why, 
I  wouldn't  go  across  the  river  on  that  old  Siwash's  word" 
(meaning  Carmack).  They  went  on  down  to  Forty-Mile. 
Another  party,  one  of  whom  was  Swan  Peterson,  who 
bought  in  on  No.  33  Eldorado,  came  along  at  the  same 
time,  and  argued  for  three  hours  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Klondike  whether  they  should  go  up,  and  finally  went  '^^n 
to  Circle  City. 

There  were  few  old-timers  in  the  procession.  They 
knew  all  about  Klondike.  It  was  nothing  but  a  "moose- 
pasture."  It  was  not  like  other  places  where  they  had 
seen  gold.  They  climbed  the  hills  and  walked  along 
the  divide  until  they  could  look  down  into  the  valley  of 
T  289 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 


Bonanza.  Here  many  of  them  stopped  and  threw  up 
their  hands  in  disgust.  Others  went  the  round  of  the 
creek,  cursing  and  swearing  at  those  who  told  them  to 
come  there.  One  old-timer  got  up  as  far  as  No.  20 
above,  where  the  last  stakes  were.  He  surveyed  the 
prospect,  and  as  he  turned  away  remarked,  "  I'll  leave 
it  to  the  Swedes,"  (The  Swedes  were  supposed  to  be 
willing  to  work  the  poorest  ground.)  Another,  or  it 
may  have  been  the  same,  is  said  to  have  written  on  the 
stakes  of  No.  21,  not  the  usual  "  I  claim,"  etc.,  but,  "  This 
inoosc-pasturc  is  reserved  for  the  Szcedes  and  Cheehah- 
koes."  Louis  Rhodes  staked  it  right  afterwards.  After 
he  had  written  his  name  he  said  to  his  companions,  be- 
ing ashamed  of  staking  in  such  a  place,  that  he  would 
cut  his  name  off  for  two  bits  (25  cents).  The  next  stim- 
I'ner  he  took  out  forty-four  thousand  and  odd  dollars. 

Put  all  that  and  much  more  was  hidden  in  the  future. 
A  Klondike  claim  was  not  considered  worth  anything. 
One-half  interest  in  one  of  the  richest  Eldorado  claims 
was  sold  for  a  sack  of  flour.  A  few  thousand  dollars 
could  have  bought  up  the  creek  from  end  to  end. 

Some  who  had  provisions  remained  to  prospect,  others 
returned  to  Forty-Mile,  just  as  the  miners  were  coming 
in  from  the  diggings,  to  learn  for  the  first  time  of  a  strike 
on  Klondike.  Among  these  was  a  Swede  by  the  name 
of  Charlie  Anderson.  By  the  time  Anderson  reached 
the  new  diggings  there  was  nothing  left.  After  a  fruit- 
less attempt  to  reach  a  distant  creek  from  which  gold 
had  been  reported,  he  returned  discouraged  to  Dawson. 
There  a  gambler  approached  him  and  said,  "Charlie, 
don't  you  want  to  buy  a  claim  ?"  "  I  don't  care  if  I  do. 
How  much  do  you  want  ?"  "  I'll  let  you  have  No.  29  on 
Eldorado  for  $800."  "  I'll  take  it,"  replied  Anderson,  who 
had  taken  out  a  considerable  sum  that  summer  from  a 

290  '  ^ 


o 

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O 

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o 
> 
so 

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o 
O 


in 


o 

O 


> 
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G 

a 


O 
GO 


(« 


KLONDIKE   A   "BUNCO" 


<' 


claim  on  Miller  Creek,  at  the  head  of  Sixty-Mile  River, 
and  he  weighed  out  the  dust.  The  enterprising  salesman 
went  about  boasting  how  he  had  played  Charlie  for  a 
"sucker,"  only  he  wanted  some  one  to  kick  him  for  not 
having  asked  him  $1200.  He  believed  he  could  have  got 
it  just  as  easily  as  he  did  the  ;$8oo.  The  man  who  sold 
the  claim  is  still  a  poor  man.  When  Eldorado  began  to 
"  prove  up,"  even  Anderson  could  not  realize  the  enor- 
mous value  of  his  claim,  from  which  there  will  come  out 
$400,000,  if  the  remaining  two-fifths  are  as  rich  as  the  three- 
fifths  that  have  been  worked  thus  far.  Eldorado  was  not 
liked  as  well  as  Adams  Creek,  just  below  it.  A  late-comer 
went  up  Adams,  found  a  man  staking  for  himself  and 
family  (by  this  time  the  real  excitement  had  begun).  Said 
the  late-comer  :  "  I've  come  a  good  way.  What  you  are 
doing  is  illegal,  and  I  want  a  claim  and  mean  to  have 
one."  The  man  who  was  staking  told  him  he  would  like 
to  have  his  friends  near  him,  and  offered  him  the  stakes 
of  No.  15  Eldorado,  if  that  would  do  as  well.  It  was  ac- 
cepted. Nothing  more  than  "wages"  has  yet  been 
found  on  Adams. 

How  was  the  news  of  the  Klondike  discovery  received 
on  the  lower  river  ?  Forty-Mile,  the  seat  of  the  re- 
corder, was  of  course  the  first  to  hear  all  the  reports  and 
rumors.  This  can  best  be  told  in  the  words  of  one  who 
was  in  Forty- Mile  town  at  the  time.  "  Nobody  believed 
any  of  the  first  reports  about  gold  on  the  Klondike. 
You  see,  there  never  was  any  money  in  the  lower  coun- 
try. A  man  would  come  in  after  a  hard  summer's  work 
with  a  'poke'  [sack]  that  a  man  would  be  ashamed  of 
here  in  Dawson.  They  owed  the  stores  for  their  last 
year's  outfit,  and  they'd  pay  for  that  and  get  credit  on 
next  year's  outfit.  The  stores  had  rather  have  it  that 
way  than  not.    They  were  'ure  a  man  would  not  leave 

293 


ii 


i 


111 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 


the  country  without  paying,  or  with  a  small  stake,  so 
they'd  be  sure  sooner  or  later  of  getting  all  he  made. 
They  were  a  pretty  good  class  of  men  in  the  lower  coun- 
try, and  most  of  them  could  get  credit.  A  man  would 
come  into  a  saloon,  and  all  he'd  have  would  be  one  drink 
or  one  dance.  You'd  never  see  them  asking  up  three  or 
four  at  once  to  drink.  Why,  there  weren't  but  three  men 
in  Forty-Mile  that  could  afford  to  get  drunk.  They  did 
nothing  all  winter  but  sit  around  where  it  was  warm, 
playing  pedro,  solitaire,  and  casino.  Word  came  to  For- 
ty-Mile that  Louis  Rhodes  had  two  men  working  for 
him,  and  was  getting  good  pay.  '  That's  a  lie,'  said  one 
man.  '  Louis  Rhodes  !  when  was  Jic  able  to  hire  two 
men?'  Next  word  came  down  that  Ben  Wall  was  get- 
ting two-bit  dirt.  'Hell!'  says  Nigger  Jim;  'I've 
known  Ben  Wall  these  ten  years,  and  he's  the  all-firedest 
liar  in  the  Yukon.'  When  they  heard  that  Berry  was 
getting  $1  to  the  pan,  they  laughed.  Klondike  was  a 
bunco  —  nothing  but  a  bunco."  These  words  were  spo- 
ken in  what  the  miners  called  "  josh,"  but  they  were  true, 
nevertheless. 

Circle  City,  170  miles  farther  away  than  Forty -Mile, 
did  not  get  the  news  so  soon.  The  first  report  that 
reached  Circle  was  of  a  discovery  on  Klondike — an  ounce 
to  the  "shovel,"  shovelling  off  the  surface.  This,  in 
miners'  parlance,  meant  that  one  man  had  shovelled 
into  the  sluice-boxes  gold  to  the  value  of  one  ounce  ($17) 
per  day.  The  next  news  was  when  Sam  Bartlett  came 
down  with  a  raft  of  logs  which  he  had  failed  to  land  at 
Forty-Mile.  Bartlett  said  it  was  a  "bilk";  that  Joe  La- 
due  was  only  trying  to  get  men  up  to  his  town-site — he 
had  stopped  there,  but  would  not  stake.  The  next  news 
came  to  Oscar  Ashby,  a  saloon  -  keeper,  from  a  friend, 
about  the  middle   of  November.     The  river  was  then 

-94 
/ 


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TO 

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CIRCLE    CITY   ABANDONED 


l 


closed,  and  the  letter  came  down  over  the  ice  *  There 
were  about  seventy -five  men  in  Oscar's  saloon  when  the 
letter  was  read.  It  was  somewhat  to  this  effect,  telling 
Ashby  to  buy  all  the  property  he  could  on  Klondike,  it 
did  not  make  any  difference  what  the  prices  were  :  "  This 
is  one  of  the  richest  strikes  in  the  world.  It  is  a  world- 
beater.  I  can't  tell  how  much  gold  we  are  getting  to  the 
pan.  I  never  saw  or  heard  of  the  like  of  such  a  thing  in 
my  life.  I  myself  saw  $150  panned  out  of  one  pan  of  dirt, 
and  I  think  they  are  getting  as  high  as  $1000."  The  crowd 
in  the  saloon  had  a  big  laugh,  and  thought  so  little  of  it 
that  they  never  spoke  of  it  again.  "  It  disgusted  them  that 
men  were  so  crazy  as  to  write  that  way,"  to  quote  the  words 
of  one  who  was  present.  Soon  after  another  letter  came. 
This  time  it  was  to  Harry  Spencer  and  Frank  Dens- 
more,  from  a  party  with  whom  they  were  well  acquaint- 
ed. Densmore  at  once  fitted  out  a  dog-team  and  went 
up.  After  he  got  up  he  wrote  back  to  Spencer,  relating 
all  the  particulars.  He  repeated  the  words  of  the  others 
— namely,  that  he  really  could  not  tell  what  they  7tV7r 
finding:  it  was  immensely  rich  ;  he  had  never  seen  any- 
thing like  it.  Now  Spencer  and  Densmore  had  large 
interests  in  Circle  City,  so  the  men  knew  it  could  be 
no  lie ;  they  were  compelled  to  believe  it.  The  wildest 
stampede  resulted.  Every  dog  that  could  be  bought, 
begged,  or  stolen  was  pressed  into  service,  and  those  who 
could  not  get  dogs  started  hauling  their  own  sleds,  men 
and  even  women,  until  in  two  weeks  there  were  not  twenty 
people  left  in  Circle,  and  of  those  some  were  cripples  and 
could  not  travel.     In  a  short  while  there  were  not  even 


'41 


v 


*Tom  O'Brien  and  the  general  manager  of  the  Alaska  Com- 
mercial Company  made  the  250  trail-miles  or  more  in  a  few  hours 
over  five  days,  travelling  light,  with  basket  sleigh  and  dogs  — a 
record  trip. 

297 


II 


i'l 


I- 


t 


T  H  K    K  L  O  N  1)  I  K  E    S  T  A  ^I  P  E  D  E 

that  number  left,  a  report  giving  the  actual  number  as 
two  men  and  one  woman.  Those  who  had  claims  de- 
serted them,  and  those  who  had  outfits  took  what  they 
could  haul  and  left  the  rest  in  a  cache,  where  they  are  to 
this  day.  One  man,  William  Parrel,  of  No.  60  above  on 
Bonanza,  left  a  thousand  dollars'  worth  of  provisions, 
five  full  claims  on  one  creek,  and  fully  a  dozen  other 
interests,  all  considered  good  prospects ;  a"  \,  says  he,  "  I 
haven't  paid  any  attention  to  them  since."  By  the  time 
the  Circle  City  crowd  arrived  Bonanza  was  staked  to 
No.  60  below  and  into  the  6o's  above,  and  also  the  side 
creeks,  Eldorado  and  Adams.  So  that  the  late-comers 
had  to  go  into  the  side -gulches,  or  else  buy  in,  which 
latter  many  of  them  did,  so  that  on  such  as  Eldorado  it 
soon  came  about  that  few  of  the  original  stakers  were 
left,  having  sold  out  at  ridiculous  prices. 

There  were  from  three  to  four  hundred  miners  at  work 
about  Circle  City,  and  nearly  all  had  money,  the  United 
vStates  mint  returns  giving  the  amount  of  gold  cleaned 
up  that  season  in  Birch  Creek  as  $900,000 ! 

The  first  mail  that  went  outside  by  dog-team  carried 
letters  to  friends  and  relatives,  advising  them  that  a  big 
strike  had  been  made.  It  reached  them  in  January  and 
February,  and  they  started.  Crossing  the  pass  in  spring, 
they  came  down  on  the  high-water  in  June,  and,  though 
unable  to  get  in  on  the  main  creeks,  many  of  them 
located  other  creeks  that  are  showing  up  rich.  That  the 
report  of  a  strike  of  this  magnitude  should  have  been 
common  property  outside  six  months  before  the  excite- 
ment is  clear  proof  that  the  world's  acute  attack  of 
insanity  was  caused  by  the  adroit  manipulation  of  the 
story  of  the  miners'  arrival  by  sensational  newspapers, 
as  the  result  of  rivalry  and  to  boom  the  Alaska  outfit- 
ting business. 


THE    FIRST    NEWS    OF    BONANZA 


But  where  were  Henderson  and  his  partners  while  Bo- 
nanza and  Eldorado  were  being  staked  ? 

Bonanza  was  staked  into  the  8o's  above  and  Eldo- 
rado to  No.  ^:^ — or  over  three  miles — when  a  party  of 
miners,  including  George  Wilson  and  James  McNamee, 
went  over  the  divide  to  Gold  Bottom,  where  Henderson 
was  still  working. 

Henderson  asked  them  where  they  were  from.  They 
replied,  "  Bonanza  Creek." 

Henderson  says  that  he  did  not  want  to  display  his 
ignorance.  He  had  never  heard  of  "  Bonanza  "  Creek. 
At  length  he  ventured  to  ask  where  "Bonanza"  Creek 
was.     They  pointed  over  the  hill. 

"  '  Rabbit  Creek  !'     What  have  you  got  there  ?" 

"  We  have  the  biggest  thing  in  the  world." 

"  Who  found  it  ?" 

"McCormick." 

It  is  said  Henderson  threw  down  his  shovel  and  went 
and  sat  on  the  bank,  so  sick  at  heart  that  it  was  some 
time  before  he  could  speak. 

There  was  nothing  left  for  Henderson.  Many  anoth- 
er man  would  have  been  utterly  discouraged.  It  is  true, 
however,  that  there  was  very  rich  ground  for  a  mile 
farther  up  on  Eldorado,  but  the  extent  of  the  richness 
of  the  new  creeks  was  not  then  suspected.  Nor  did  Hen- 
derson's ill-fortune  end  here.  He  had  been  over  the 
ridge,  upon  a  large  fork  of  Gold  Bottom,  and  made 
discoveries,  one  of  which  amounted  to  35  cents  to  the 
pan.  He  staked  a  claim  there,  according  to  the  law  then 
in  force — one  full  claim,  and  another  to  which  he  was  en- 
titled by  virtue  of  discovery.  After  cleaning  up  on  Gold 
Bottom  and  dividing  the  money  between  his  partners, 
he  staked  a  discoverer's  double  claim  and  started  for  For- 
ty -  Mile,  as  winter  was  coming  on.     On  the  way  he  met 

299 


If 


;:;l 


■HM 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

Andrew  Hunker,  a  German  by  birth,  who  had  staked  and 
recorded  No.  31  below  on  Bonanza  Creek,  and  Charles 
Johnson,  an  Ohio  man,  who  had  staked  No.  43  below  on 
the  same  creek.  They  told  Henderson  that  they  had  made 
a  discovery  of  $3  to  the  pan  on  the  other  fork  of  Hender- 
son's "Gold  Bottom."  They  had  staked  between  them  Dis- 
covery and  No.  i  above  and  No.  i  below,  on  September 


STRIPPING   TIIK   MUCK  OFF    "  SUMMEU   DIGGINGS" 


6th.  This  was  two  miles  below  Henderson's  discovery. 
They  told  Henderson  they  thought  he  could  not  hold 
Discovery  as  against  them,  and  as  their  new  find  was 
apparently  better  than  his  own,  he  staked  No.  3  above. 
This  fork  was  first  called  Hunker's  Fork  of  Gold  Bottom, 
and  was  so  shown  on  maps  of  that  time.  But  as  the 
subsequent  staking  began  at  Hunker's  discovery,  the 
whole  creek  to  its  mouth  at  the  Klondike  was  recorded 
as  Hunker  Creek,  Gold  Bottom  becoming  a  fork  of  Hunker 

300 


TOO    MUCH    LAW 

Creek.  At  Bear  Creek,  between  Hunker  and  the  Yukon, 
where  Solomon  Marpak,  a  Russian  Finn,  had  just  made  a 
discovery,  Henderson  stopped  and  staked  a  claim.  When 
he  reached  Forty-Mile,  Henderson  learned  that  instead 
of  being  allowed  a  claim  on  each  separate  creek,  a  new 
mining  regulation  just  received  from  Ottawa  provided 
that  no  person  could  hold  more  than  one  claim  in  a  min- 
ing "district,"  the  Klondike  River  and  all  its  tributaries 
being  considered  a  "district."  Sixty  days  from  the  time 
of  staking  was  allowed  in  which  to  record,  and  Henderson 
applied,  he  maintains,  within  the  time,  and  there  is  no 
reason  for  doubting  his  general  statement.  Although  his 
record  is  imperfect,  much  latitude  must  be  allowed  men 
who  are  isolated  for  months  and  necessarily  have  hazy 
ideas  of  dates.  In  general  there  is  no  doubt  but  that 
at  the  time  Henderson  drove  his  stakes  he  was  entitled 
to  either  four  or  five  claims,  according  as  he  chose  his 
locations,  on  Hunker  Creek,  and  the  law  which  thus  de- 
prived him  came  into  force  between  the  time  he  staked 
and  the  day  he  reached  Forty-Mile.  And,  I  would  ask, 
how  could  Henderson — and  I  would  include  all  of  his 
class,  the  hardy  prospectors  who  were  the  real  develop- 
ers of  the  Yukon,  who  have  given  to  Canada  all  that  is 
at  present  shown  to  be  of  value  there — how  could  he 
have  made  the  original  discoveries,  that  paved  the  way 
for  the  development  of  the  great  riches  of  Klondike,  if 
he  had  remained,  say,  at  Forty  -  Mile  town,  where  he 
could  have  kept  posted  on  changes  in  the  mining  law 
made  from  time  to  time  at  Ottawa  ? 

Hunker's  discovery  being  better  than  his  own,  Hen- 
derson recorded  No.  3  alone.  He  was  laid  up  that  win- 
ter, unable  to  work,  from  an  injury  he  met  with  on  Indian 
River.  In  the  spring,  far  from  being  disheartened,  and 
with  energy  and  faith  characteristic  of  the  man,  he  took 

301  •      • 


i 


THE    KLONDIKE    vSTAMPEDE 


his  tools,  boat,  and  some  provisions  and  went  up  the 
Klondike  forty  miles,  to  a  large  tributary  then  called 
"Too  Much  Gold,"  but  known  now  as  "Flat"  Creek, 
prospecting.  He  soon  returned  and  proceeded  to  a  large 
creek,  two  miles  below  the  mouth  of  Ftewart  River,  and, 
eleven  miles  above  the  mouth  of  the  creek,  made  a  discov- 
ery of  lo  cents  to  the  pan,  the  creek  being  subsequently 
named  "  Henderson  "  Creek.  From  there  he  ascended  the 
Stewart  River  a  long  distance,  prospecting.  Being  favor- 
ably impressed  by  the  outlook,  he  staked  a  town-site  at 
the  mouth  of  McQuesten  Creek,  eighty  miles  from  the 
mouth  of  Stewart,  and  on  his  return  made  an  applica- 
tion for  the  same  to  Ottawa.  For  some  cause  he  re- 
ceived no  reply  to  the  application.  (The  town-site  has 
since  been  taken  up  and  stores  built  there.)  Returning 
to  the  new  camp  which  had  sprung  up  at  the  mouth  of 
the  Klondike,  he  took  steamer,  intending  to  leave  the 
country,  but  was  frozen  in  with  the  rest  of  the  refugees 
at  Circle  City.  He  was  under  the  doctor's  care  all  winter. 
Obliged  to  realize  some  money,  he  sold  No.  3  above  Dis- 
covery on  Hunker  Creek  for  $3000 — a  mere  fraction  of  its 
value.  Henderson,  miner  that  he  is,  svould  have  worked 
this  claim  had  he  been  able  to  do  so,  and  he  would  still 
have  found  himself  in  possession  of  a  comfortable  fort- 
une, and  thereby  received  some  compensation  for  his 
many  discouragements. 

Although  he  did  not  himself  make  the  discovery  on 
Bonanza,  he  was  yet  the  direct  cause  and  means  of  that 
discovery  being  made.  He  was  not  the  victim  of  his  own 
negligence  or  failure  to  grasp  an  opportunity.  He  created 
the  opportunity,  and  was  prevented  from  profiting  by  it. 
It  is  beside  the  point,  but  yet  of  interest,  that  I  have  it, 
on  Henderson's  own  word,  which  I  am  not  disposed  to 
question,  that  it  was  his  intention,  when  done  with  Gold 

302 


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CREDIT   TO    HENDRRvSON 

Bottom,  to  go  clown  Rabbit  Creek  prospecting;^.  When 
the  news  of  the  wonderful  richness  of  Bonanza  burst  upon 
the  world,  Henderson  was  forgotten.  Mr,  Ogilvie,  then 
at  Forty -Mile,  kept  his  government  posted  concerning 
the  developments  of  that  fall.  Mr.  Ogilvie  gave  the  best 
information  at  his  command.  Carmack  had  made  the 
discovery  on  Bonanza  Creek  :  Henderson's  part  was  not 
then  understood,  and  Henderson  was  no  man  to  press 
himself  forward.  But  later  Mr.  Ogilvie  gave  the  man 
full  credit  in  the  following  words  ; 

"  The  Klondike  was  prospected  for  forty  miles  up  in  1887,  with- 
out anything  being  found,  and  again  in  1893,  with  a  similar  lack 
of  result;  but  the  ditlerence  is  seen  when  the  right  course  is 
taken,  and  this  was  led  up  to  by  Robert  Henderson.  This  man 
is  a  born  prospector,  and  you  could  not  persuade  him  to  stay  on 
eveft  the  richest  claim  on  Bonanza.  He  started  up  in  a  small 
boat  to  spend  this  summer  and  winter  on  Stewart  River  pros- 
pecting. This  is  the  stuff  the  true  prospector  is  made  of,  and  I 
am  prou  ;  to  say  he  is  a  Canadian."* 

When  I  first  met  Henderson  I  was  impressed  by  the 
earnestness  of  the  man.  I  asked  him  if  he  was  not 
discouraged  by  all  that  had  happened. 

"  No,"  replied  he,  "  there  are  as  rich  mines  yet  to  be 
discovered  as  any  that  have  been  found." 

I  was  not  quite  sure  that  he  believed  that,  but  it  was 
characteristic  of  the  man  to  say  so. 

In  October,  1898,  I  saw  Henderson  for  the  last  time. 
He  had  just  reached  Seattle  from  the  Yukon.  Unsus- 
picious and  trusting,  he  had  been  robbed  on  the  steamer 
of  all  the  money  he  had — $1100.  He  had  one  thing  left. 
It  was  the  golden  (carpenter's)  rule  and  myrtle-leaves 
badge  of  the  Yukon  Order  of  Pioneers,  of  which  he  was 


ii 


*  Extract  from  Victoria  Colonist,  Novcruber  6,  1897. 
u  305 


wtmm. 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

a  member.  For  some  reason  he  insisted  on  pinning  it 
himself  upon  my  vest,  saying,  "You  keep  this.  I  will 
lose  it  too.  I  am  not  fit  to  live  among  civilized  men." 
He  returned  to  Aspen,  where  his  wife  and  child  were, 
to  work  again  at  the  same  mine  where  he  worked  six 
years  ago,  before  he  went  into  the  Yukon.  Surely,  if  the 
Minister  of  the  Interior  could  from  Ottawa  grant  hun- 
dreds of  miles  of  claims,  supposed  to  be  of  great  value, 
to  men  who  never  saw  and  never  will  see  the  Yukon, 
surely  it  would  be  a  graceful  act  for  him  yet  to  do  some- 
thing for  this  man,  who  scorns  to  be  a  beggar  and  to 
whom  the  offer  of  a  pension  would  be  an  insult  as  long 
as  he  can  tramp  and  dig  and  look.  Canada  owes  not  less 
to  Henderson  than  California  to  Marshall,  the  discoverer 
of  gold  at  Sutter's  mill. 

The  miners  who  knew  have  always  given  Henderson 
credit.  "  Siwash  George  would  be  fishing  yet  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Klondike  if  it  hadn't  been  for  Bob  Hen- 
derson." 


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- 

A  DAWSON   BAGGAGL   h.\ TRESS 


CHAPTER   XV 


The  Staking  of  Bonanza— Luck  or  Good  Judgment  ?— \Yild  Scenes  at  the 
First  Clean-up— Large  Pans— How  Eldorado  was  Staked  and  Named 


AFT 

A 


FTER  Bonanza  began  to  show  up  richer 
than  anything  before  known  in  the 
Yukon,  many  who  did  not  beUeve 
the  ground  was  particularly  valu- 
able until  the  true  nature  of  the  strike  was 
made  evident  by  the  labor  of  others  began 
to  realize  what  good  judgment  they  had 
shown  in  picking  out  such  "choice  loca- 
tions." To  those  who  by  mere  chance  held 
^^'  '.heir  claims  until  after  the  first  work  was 
done  it  mattiirs  little  that  the  first  opinion  of  Klondike 
was  poo:,  but  upon  those  who  thought  the  amount  of  a 
year's  '  grub-stake  "  fair  pay  for  a  few  days'  hard  travel- 
ling the  si,r,ht  of  fortunes  taken  from  ground  they  them- 
selves had  staked  can  well  be  imagined.  If  the  truth 
were  to  be  confessed,  the  reason  there  were  not  more 
sales  was  that  there  were  few  buyers.  As  the  claims 
"  proved  up,"  the  buyer,  conservative  and  cautious,  was 
nearly  always  a  lap  behind  the  seller,  and  when  prices 
rose  into  thousands  and  tens  of  thuisands  it  is  no  won- 
der there  was  no  basis  of  calculation.  It  was  as  easy  to 
believe  there  was  a  million  or  four  millions  as  one  hun- 
dred thousand  dollars  in  a  single  claim.  When  a  rich 
claim  on  upper  Bonanza  si;id  for  $3500  at  Forty-^NIile,  a 

307 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 


well-known  old-timer  left  the  room  where  the  sale  was 
being  negotiated,  saying  he  "  wouldn't  stay  and  see  an 
honest  man  buncoed." 

No.  31  Eldorado  was  sold  by  the  original  stakers  for 
$100,  $80  being  cash.  Within  six  months  it  sold  for 
$31,000,  and  one  year  later  the  owner  refused  ^i^r  000. 
One -half  of  No.  30  Eldorado,  it  is  said,  was  sold  i-n  a 
sack  of  flour.  The  owners,  big  Alec  McDonald  an  1 
Billy  Chappel,  did  not  think  enough  of  it  to  work  it 
themselves,  but  rather  late  in  the  season  put  it  out  on  a 
"lay,"  and  took  a  "lay"  themselves  on  another  claim. 
The  "laymen"  struck  it  the  first  hole,  and  out  of  thirty 
burnings  cook  out  $40,000. 

On  account  of  the  distance  to  the  seat  of  the  recorder, 
the  miners  agreed  upon  a  temporary  recorder  from 
among  their  own  number  (after  the  United  States  cus- 
tom). They  paid  this  man  $2  for  each  claim,  agreeing 
to  pay  in  due  season  the  $15  required  by  Canadian  law. 
When  he  began  to  measure  the  claims,  by  some  trick 
a  40-foot  rope  was  introduced  instead  of  a  50-foot  one, 
which  shortened  each  claim  by  50  feet  or  more,  and 
left  fractions  between,  which  by  this  time  were  of  value. 
These  were  seized  upon  and  staked  the  same  as  full 
claims,  but  when  the  deception  was  found  out  there  was 
a  big  row,  and  Mr.  William  Ogilvie  was  called  from 
Forty-Mile  to  settle  the  trouble.  Mr.  Ogilvie,  being  a 
magistrate,  took  testimony ;  the  men  repented,  confessed, 
and  were  forgiven  ;  and  then  Mr.  Ogilvie  made  a  partial 
survey  of  Bonanza  and  Eldorado.  But  many  of  the 
claims  on  Bonanza  were  short. 

One  of  these  short  claims,  however,  was  not  llie  fault  of 
the  official  measurer.  It  was  on  lower  I'oiai-T. — I  never 
knew  the  exact  spot;  it  was  where  the  ■  .oik  twisted 
very  much  and  the  valley  was  broac..     'J'lie  staker  was 

308 


DICK    LOWE'S    LUCK 


a  mounted  policeman.  He  should  have  measured  500 
feet  in  the  direction  of  the  valley,  but  not  being  able 
to  see  the  direction,  perhaps  on  account  of  the  thick 
woods,  he  followed  the  winding  creek.  When  the  sur- 
veyor threw  lines  across  the  valley  corresponding  to  his 
upper  and  lower  stakes,  the  poor  policeman  had  six  feet 
less  than  a  claim  ! 

"Micky"  Wilkins  staked  a  claim  near  Discovery. 
"  Micky  "  was  not  one  of  those  who  were  thrown  into 
boats  and  brought  along  against  their  will  from  Forty- 
Mile  in  the  first  stampede,  but  he  7vas  one  of  a  party 
who  helped  tie  a  drunken  man  and  throw  him  into  a  boat. 
"Micky  "  sold  out  for  a  few  hundred  dollars.  When  the 
claim  was  surveyed  the  new  owner  found  only  a  few 
inches.  I  felt  sorry  for  all  who  sold  at  the  very  start 
until  I  met  "  Micky."  • 

A  fraction  of  a  claim  would  hardly  seem  worth  having; 
but  John  Jacob  Astor  Dusel,  who  staked  No.  2  above  on 
Bonanza,  was  a  good  miner,  and  he  wanted  to  take  in  the 
mouth  of  Skookum  Gulch.  Dick  Lowe  put  the  tape  to 
Dusel's  claim  and  found  it  about  78  feet  too  long,  and  took 
for  himself  a  narrow  slice  directly  opposite  the  mouth 
of  Skookum.  He  did  not  think  much  of  it  at  the 
time.  He  wanted  $900  for  it.  No  one  was  so  foolish  as 
to  pay  so  much  for  the  narrow  strip  of  ground.  He 
tried  to  let  it  out  on  a  "  lay,"  but  no  one  wanted  to  work 
it  for  an  interest.  He  had  to  work  it  himself,  poor  man  ! 
The  first  hole  was  put  down  by  his  present  foreman,  and 
he  did  not  find  a  cent.  Further  account  of  what  is  proba- 
bly the  richest  piece  of  ground  in  the  whole  Klondike 
must  be  left  till  later,  when  he  was  sending  the  gold 
down  on  jiack-hoises. 

On  Eldorado  the  claims  were  almost  all  over  500  feet. 
It  was  as  if  they  were  measured  by  guess  while  on  the 

309 


I ; 

w 


- 1  I 


I* 

S-' 


■M 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

run,  and  then  a  lot  more  added  to  make  sure.  No.  37 
was  J  20  feet  too  long.  Several  fractions  are  from  100 
to  i(  feet  in  length.  Sometimes  the  second  man  did 
not   nxr  his   fraction  correctly,  and   a   third  man 

found  aa  staked  another  slice.  Nothing  on  Eldo- 
rado  was  too   small.     There    is   one   10  -  foot   fraction 


Sfc:5!^iMiMI^=ir 

£S!li9ftiHEMBl!CSflC^^'']^;^!l3J!ifet 

f^^'JL^UKBEIKwSK^ 

"^L  ^ 

^-^  -.^ 

SLUICING   THli:   WINTER   DUMPS 


ill 


thought  cO  be  worth  $10,000  to  $20,000.  A  13-foot  frac- 
tion was  found  next  to  No.  14.  It  was  so  narrow  that 
the  owner  had  to  take  a  "  lay  "  of  37  feet  on  the  adjoin- 
ing claim  in  order  to  work  it. 

Nor  was  all  the  luck  confined  to  the  mines.  A  butch- 
er named  "  Long  Shorty,"  otherwise  Thorp,  drove  cat- 
tle in  over  the  Dalton  trail,  and  was  trying  to  reach 
Forty-Mile  late  in  the  fall  with  the  meat  on  a  raft  in  the 
ice.     He  was  frozen  in  at  the  mouth  of  the  Klondike, 

310 


I 


A    RACE    FOR    A    CLAIM 


only  to  discover  there  a  big  mining  -  camp.  That  beef 
was  a  godsend  to  the  miners,  as  provisions  were  very 
scarce.  Flour  had  to  be  freighted  with  dogs  from  For- 
ty-Mile, and  sold  at  from  $40  to  $60  a  fifty-pound  sack. 
Beef  was  $1  to  $2  a  pound.  Mining -tools  also  were 
scarce,  shovels  bringing  $17  to  $18  each.  But  wages 
were  proportionately  high,  $1.50  to  '^2  an  hour  being 
paid  for  common  labor,  and  often  not  to  be  had  at  that 
price.  Wages  were  high,  not  because  of  the  expense  of 
living,  but  because  of  the  opportunities  for  individual 
effort. 

The  first  hole  to  be  put  down  by  burning  is  credited 
to  Skookum  Jim.  Pages  could  be  filled  with  the  finds 
that  day  by  day  were  made  on  those  claims  that  were 
worked  that  winter.  A  personage  known  to  fame  as 
"  Swiftwater  Bill  "  took  a  100-foot  "lay  "  on  No.  13  Eldo- 
rado. Seven  holes  were  put  down  before  the  pay  was 
struck  (though  many  think  there  was  pay  in  one  of  the 
first  holes,  and  that  they  filled  it  up).  At  any  rate,  the 
buyer  asked  the  price — $45,000 — and  with  six  others  he 
bought  the  claim,  paid  $10,000  down,  put  in  a  rocker, 
and  paid  for  the  claim  in  six  weeks. 

Any  claims  not  recorded  within  sixty  days  were  open 
for  relocation.  There  were  several  such  claims  left  va- 
cant by  men  who  considered  them  no  good,  and  who 
recorded  elsewhere.  Such  a  claim  was  No.  40  above 
on  Bonanza.  It  was  generally  known  that  the  claim 
was  open,  and  a  mounted  policeman  was  there,  with 
watch  in  hand,  to  announce  when  exactly  twelve  o'clock 
midnight  came.  It  was  in  January.  There  were  several 
parties  on  foot,  and  two  men  had  dog  outfits.  Promptly 
at  midnight  all  hands  staked  and  started.  One  Lereaux 
and  a  companion,  Vaughan,  ran  to  No.  48  above,  where 
one  team    was  waiting.     Lowerie,  the  other  dog -man, 

311 


H 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

started  on  the  run  for  Dawson,  where  an  Indian  with 
five  or  six  dogs  was  in  waiting.  Lereaux  had  the  same 
number.  At  Dawson  they  were  not  far  apart.  Both 
were  splendid  teams,  but  dogs  are  poor  things  to  race 
with,  as  every  one  knows.  A  dog  has  no  ambition  to 
pass  ahead,  like  a  horse  ;  he  prefers  to  follow.  Besides, 
when  the  trail  is  narrow,  it  is  hard  for  one  team  to  pass 
another.  They  probably  could  not  have  passed  each 
other  at  all,  but  it  happened  that  every  time  they 
came  to  a  cabin  the  leading  team  insisted  on  turning  out, 
whereupon  the  hind  team  would  seize  the  opportunity 
to  dash  by.  When  they  reached  Forty-Mile,  Lowerie 
and  the  Indian  were  ahead.  The  Indian  runner  did  not 
know  the  recorder's  office  was  across  the  creek,  or  else  the 
dogs  deteimined  to  turn  into  Forty-Mile  town.  Lowerie 
saw  the  mistake,  jumped  from  his  sleigh,  and  made  for 
the  recorder's  office  on  the  dead  run,  with  Lereaux  just 
even  with  him.  Both  men  reached  the  office  at  the  same 
moment  and  fell  against  the  door.  They  were  both  so 
exhausted  that  for  a  while  they  could  not  say  what  they 
had  come  for.  When  they  recovered  sufficient  breath 
to  announce  their  business.  Captain  Constantine  told 
them  he  would  wait  to  see  if  there  were  others  behind  ; 
and,  no  one  else  coming,  he  divided  the  claim  between 
them. 

A  detachment  of  mounted  police  came  up  to  Dawson 
in  the  late  winter  or  spring,  bringing  the  record-books 
with  them.  Certificates  of  registry  of  that  time  were 
in  manuscript,  there  being  no  printed  blanks  until  later. 

Wild  scenes  followed  the  clean-up.  Men  with  never 
a  penny  to  spare  in  their  lives  were  suddenly  made  rich. 
There  was  no  real  disorder,  there  were  no  shootings,  no 
hold-ups,  none  of  the  things  associated  in  the  popular 
mind  with  a  real  live  mining-camp.    vSomething  in  the 

312 


o 


o 

O 


n 


g       V, 

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T 


RIOT  (J  us    vSCENEvS 


Yukon  air  discourages  all  that.  It  could  not  be  the 
presence  of  the  police,  for  there  were  no  police  at  Circle 
City,  and  only  a  baker's  dozen  at  Davvson.  Gold  flowed, 
and  when  it  would  not  flow  it  was  sowed,  literally  sowed, 
broadcast  in  drunken  debauch  over  the  sawdust  floors  of 
the  saloons  as  if  there  were  no  end  to  the  supply.  Gold 
was  panned  out  of  the  sawdust — whole  saloonfuls  of  men 
would  be  asked  up  to  drink,  at  half  a  dollar  a  drink. 
Sometimes  orders  were  given  to  call  in  the  town,  and 
then  the  bartender  would  go  out  into  the  street  and  call 
everybody  in,  and  all  would  have  to  drink.  Whenever 
one  of  the  new  "millionaires"  was  backward  in  treating, 
which  w-s  r  )t  often,  the  crowd— always  a  good-natured 
one — would  pick  him  up  by  the  legs  and  arms  and  swing 
him  like  a  battering-ram  against  the  side  of  the  house 
until  he  cried  out  "  Enough  I"  There  had  never  been 
seen  anything  like  it  before,  nor  will  anything  quite  to 
equal  it  ever  be  seen  again. 

The  afore-mentioned  "  Swiftwater  Bill,"  whose  chief 
claim  to  attention  seems  to  have  been  the  way  he  "  blew 
in"  money  and  the  ease  with  which — speaking  in  the  ver- 
nacular of  the  mining-camp — his  "leg  could  be  pulled" 
by  the  fair  se.\,  spent  $40,000,  and  had  to  borrow  $5000 
to  go  outside  with.  Kis  claim  was  good  for  it,  though. 
He  quarrelled  with  his  "  lady  friend,"  and,  observing  her 
order  eggs  in  a  restaurant,  he  bought  up  every  egg  in 
town — no  fewer  than  nine  hundred  in  all — at  a  cost  of 
$1  each.  He  wore  his  inukluks  in  the  streets  of  San 
Francisco,  threw  money  into  the  streets,  and,  in  other 
ways  ostentatiously  displayed  his  new  wealth,  his  vanity 
and  craving  for  notoriety  making  him  ridiculous  even 
in  Dawson. 

How  much  gold  came  out  of  the  ground  that  first 
summer  can  never  be  known.     Two  and  a  half  millions 

315 


li 


1'' 


Ht'r'' 

m 


M 


I  M 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

is  probably  not  far  from  the  mark.  The  richness  of 
the  fifteen  miles  reported  by  Mr.  Ogilvie  was  much 
exaggerated.  The  pans  of  dirt  that  he  saw  washed  out 
gave  him  reason  for  believing,  upon  computation,  that 
there  might  be,  as  he  stated,  actually  $4,000,000  in  each 
claim.  But  these  were  not  averages.  Far,  far  from  it. 
Nor  was  the  enormous  cost  of  working  the  richest,  yet 
costliest,  diggings  in  the  Yukon  taken  into  considera- 
tion, as  it  should  have  been ;  this  might  have  prevented 
the  imposition  of  the  iniquitous  laws  of  a  Canadian  cabi- 
net, confessedly  ignorant  of  the  rudiments  of  gold-placer 
mining,  and  who,  like  the  rest  of  the  world,  lost  their 
heads  in  contemplating  the  richness  of  the  country. 

J.  J.  Clements  panned  out  of  four  pans  $2000,  the 
largest  being  reported  at  $775.  Clarence  Berry  showed 
gold  in  bottles  that  he  said  represented,  respectively, 
$560,  $230,  and  $175  pans.  There  were  many  others  like 
these.  Of  course,  they  were  picked  and  scraped  off  bed- 
rock, and  did  not  represent  average  dirt;  $5,  even  $1, 
"straight,"  as  it  is  called,  would  be  enormously  rich. 

If  the  pay-streak  were  100  feet  wide  and  3  feet  deep, 
there  would  be  150,000  cubic  feet,  equal  to,  say,  675,000 
pans  of  dirt.  Think  what  an  average  of  $1  to  the  pan, 
or  even  25  cents,  would  be! 

"Jimmie  the  Tough,"  otherwise  McMann,  got  a  "'ay" 
on  No.  15  above  on  Bonanza,  sold  dump  in  spring  lor 
$35,000,  spent  $28,000  in  one  bar-bill  alone,  and  went  (.)Ut 
with  $6000  to  San  Francisco;  returning,  landed  at  Dyea 
with  $r2oo,  invested  in  whiskey  at  $25  a  gallon,  landed  at 
Dawson  with  $588,  got  drunk  and  spent  $500  in  one  week, 
and  then  went  down  to  Fort  Yukon  after  grub  with  the 
rest  of  the  crowd. 

One  hundred  and  thirty  thousand  dollars  came  out  of 
the  Berry-Anton  claim  No.  6  and  the  fraction.    On  No.  1 1 

316 


HOW   ELDORADO   WAS    STAKED 


'ay' 


Eldorado  five  box -lengths  cleaned  up  $61,000.  vSome 
say  that  they  took  out  $15,000  to  $20,000  to  a  box-length, 
one  man,  two  shifts,  shovelling  twenty  hours.  There 
were  spots  on  Bonanza  as  rich  as  Eldorado,  but  not  so 
even  and  regular.  One  thousand  dollars  to  the  foot  is 
the  top  figure,  on  an  average,  for  best  of  Eldorado,  but 
the  cost  is  one-third  for  taking  it  out.  The  first  year 
showed  nuggets  of  all  sizes  up  to  one  of  $585  (estimated 
at  I  oz.  =  $17)  from  No.  36  Eldorado. 

Not  all  the  fortunate  ones  started  for  civilization  with 
their  new  wealth.  Many  remained  to  work  their  claims, 
and  these — perhaps  not  less  happy  or  exultant — were 
not  heard  of  outside  in  the  excitement  that  accompanied 
the  breaking  of  the  good  news  to  the  world.  The  bulk 
of  the  gold,  amounting  to  about  $1,500,000,  went  out  to 
St.  Michael's,  where  waited  the  good  steamer  Portland, 
of  the  North  American  Transportation  and  Trading- 
Company,  and  the  Excelsior,  of  the  Alaska  Commercial 
Company,  crowded  with  friends  and  relatives  of  the 
returning  miners.  Others,  in  parties  of  three  and  five, 
took  to  their  poling-boats,  and  it  was  some  of  these,  and 
still  others  fleeing  for  their  lives  from  the  threatened 
famine,  that  we  met  on  our  way  in. 

HOW   ELDORADO    WAS   STAKED    AND   NAMED 

The  following  account  of  how  Eldorado  was  slaked 
and  named  was  given  me  by  William  D.  Johns,  fc<  -merly 
a  newspaper  man,  but  now  a  Klondike  miner.  Mr.  Johns 
was  in  the  neighborhood  of  Forty- Mile  when  word  of 
Carmack's  discovery  arrived,  and  was  one  of  those  who 
did  not  believe  the  report.  He  was,  therefore,  not  in 
the  first  stampede. 

"  Bonanza  was  staked  as  far  down  as  the  8o's  and  as 
far  up  as  the  70's,  but  I  determined  to  go  anyway  and 

317 


I! 


i:'j"; 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

try  some  of  the  '  pups,'  believing  it  is  never  too  late  in  a 
camp  as  new  as  this. 

"  Fred  Bruceth,  the  man  with  whom  T  planned  to  go, 
said  it  was  no  use.  So  when,  on  the  morning  of  the  day 
that  we  were  to  start  from  Forty-Mile,  we  found  that 
our  boat  had  been  stolen,  he  threw  up  his  hands  and  re- 
fused to  go.  But  upon  inquiry  I  found  that  it  was  still 
possible  for  us  to  go.  I  found  some  men  who  owned  a 
boat,  and  they  told  us  that  if  certain  parties  to  whom 
they  had  promised  the  use  of  it  did  not  return  in  fift^  ■> 
minutes  we  could  take  the  boat. 

"The  men  did  not  turn  up,  and  in  half  an  hour  we 
were  towing  the  boat  up  the  Yukon.  Only  two  weeks 
before  we  had  passed  the  mouth  of  the  Klondike  and 
camped  on  the  site  of  the  present  Dawson.  At  that  very 
time  Siwash  George  was  making  his  discovery  on  Bonan- 
za—  of  course  unknown  to  us.  On  the  third  day  we 
reached  the  mouth  of  the  Klondike,  and  camped  in  our 
old  camping- place,  and  the  next  morning,  after  making 
a  cache  of  our  supplies,  and  taking  a  pack,  crossed  the 
mouth  of  the  Klondike  to  ihe  Indian  village  (where  Klon- 
dike City  now  is),  and  then  took  a  trail  which  leads  over 
the  hills  and  along  the  ridge  parallel  with  Bonanza. 
After  a  hard  tramp  we  reached  Discovery  in  the  after- 
noon. Siwash  George  and  three  Indians  were  working 
at  the  side  of  the  bank,  sluicing  with  two  boxes  in  the 
crudest  sort  of  way.  I  took  a  pan,  and  panned  my  first 
gold  in  Klondike,  off  the  side  of  the  bank,  getting  50 
cents.  We  went  on  to  No.  3  above  Discovery,  and  made 
camp  under  a  brush  shelter.  That  night  two  men,  An- 
ton (his  full  name  is  Anton  Stander,  an  Austrian)  and 
Frank  Keller,  whom  we  had  seen  before  on  the  Yukon, 
came  to  our  camp,  and  sat  by  our  fire  for  an  hour  and  a 
half  talking.    Anton  told  us  their  camp  was  farther  up — 

3,8 


3 

•o 


Ilili 


11 


II  i 


'i: 


I 


lii       i 


SKIM -DIGGINGS,"   "NO    GOOD" 


on  upper  Bonanza  we  inferred.  They  said  they  had 
found  lo  cents  to  the  pan  on  upper  Bonanza,  and  they 
advised  us  to  try  there. 

"  Next  morning  we  took  our  packs,  and  with  two 
others,  Knut  Halstead  and  John  Ericson,  both  Norwe- 
gians, prospected  along  till  we  got  into  the  30's.  There 
we  left  everything  but  picks,  shovels,  and  pans,  and  went 
up  into  the  70's,  a  distance  of  rather  more  than  seven 
miles  from  Discovery.  We  prospected  as  we  went,  but 
found  nothing.  The  boys  agreed  in  declaring  that  if  the 
ground  had  not  been  already  staked  they  would  not  take 
the  trouble  to  do  so  themselves.  We  returned  to  camp, 
and  decided  to  prospect  a  large  'pup  '  that  came  in  just 
above  on  No.  7.  Our  attention  had  been  drawn  to  this 
'  pup  '  before  we  got  to  Discovery,  on  the  day  of  our  ar- 
rival, by  meeting  two  men  going  down  the  creek. 

"They  were  a  party  of  four  Miller  Creek  men.  We 
asked  them,  'How's  the  creek?' 

"'No  good,'  'Skim  diggings,'  'Bar  diggings,'  'Moose 
flat,'  were  the  answers  received. 

"  '  Did  you  stake  on  the  creek  ?'  we  asked. 

"  '  No,'  they  replied. 

'"Where  are  Demars  and  Louis  Empkins  ?'  we  asked, 
referring  to  the  two  other  members  of  their  party. 

"  '  Oh,  they  have  gone  up  a  "  pup  "  to  stake.' 

"  '  Why  didn't  you  stake?' 

"'Oh,  to  hell  with  the  "pups!"'  was  their  answer  as 
they  went  away  down  the  creek. 

"  Pretty  soon  we  met  Demars  and  Empkins.  'Where 
have  you  been  ?'  we  asked. 

" '  On  that  "  pup,"  '  they  replied. 

"  'Any  good?' 

"  '  Don't  know  anything  about  it ;  as  long  as  we  were 
up,  we  thought  we  might  as  well  stake  somewhere,'  and 
X  331 


w 


■  /111  !  ! 


m  :  I 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

they  hurried  on  after  their  companions.  They  were  rich 
men,  but  they  did  not  know  it. 

"Next  morning,  before  we  were  reau^  to  start,  Keller 
came  down  to  our  camp  dressed  in  corduroys  and  with  a 
rifle  on  his  shoulder,  as  if  he  were  starting  out  on  a  hunt. 
He  inquired  how  we  had  made  out.  We  told  him  we  had 
found  nothing.  He  still  favored  Bonanza ;  he  thought  it 
was  all  right.  We  asked  him  where  his  camp  was  ;  we 
had  not  seen  it  the  day  before.  '  Over  on  the  other  side,' 
he  replied,  indicating  the  way,  and  we  thought  no  more 
of  it  then.  '  Where  are  you  going  to-day  ?'  he  asked  us. 
'To  prospect  that  "pup,"'  I  replied;  'do  you  know 
anything  about  it  ?' 

"  'Oh,  I  found  a  five-cent  piece*  on  rim  rock,  about  a 
mile  up.' 

"  He  left  us.  We  still  thought  he  was  off  on  a  little 
hunt. 

"  We  started  towards  the  'pup.'  When  we  reached  the 
mouth,  Fred  Bruceth  stopped  and  pointed  to  the  brook. 

"  '  Some  one  is  working  ;  the  water  is  muddy,'  said  lie. 

"  Like  hunters  who  have  scented  game,  we  lapsed  into 
silence,  and,  with  eyes  and 'ears  alert,  kept  on.  We  had 
gone  only  a  little  way  when  suddenly  we  came  upon 
four  men.  Three  of  them  were  standing  around  the 
fourth,  who  was  holding  a  gold-pan.  All  were  intently 
looking  into  the  pan.  The  man  with  the  pan  was  Anton, 
and  the  other  three  were  J.  J.  Clements,  Frank  Phiscater^ 
and  old  man  Whipple.  When  they  looked  up  and  saw 
us,  they  acted  like  a  cat  caught  in  a  cream-pitcher.  See- 
ing that  we  had  found  them  out,  they  loosened  up  and 
told  us  all  they  knew.  They  showed  us  then  what  they 
had  in   the  pan.      There  was  not  less    than    50   cents. 

*  Five  cents  to  the  pan— scant  wages. 
322 


1 


i 


FAILURE    OF   THEIR    RUSE 


. 


While  we  were  talkin<^,  along  came  Keller.  He  had  taken 
off  his  corduroys  and  was  in  his  working-clothes,  his  at- 
tempt to  steer  us  away  having  been  a  failure.  The  five 
men  had  staked  oft"  their  claims.*  Anton's  was  the  high- 
est up  the  creek.  Above  his  were  the  two  claims  that 
Empkins  and  Demar  had  staked. 

"Anton  told  Ericson  that  he  might  have  his  claim,  as 
he  was  going  to  take  Discovery  claim.  We  all  went  up 
to  stake.  Pretty  soon  Anton  came  all  a-sweating  and 
begged  and  pleaded  with  Ericson  for  his  claim  back,  as 
the  old  man  Whipple  had  declared  that  no  one  should 
have  Discovery  but  himself.  Ericson  cut  his  name  off 
the  stakes,  and  Anton  restaked  the  claim — the  present 
No.  6  Eldorado.  Ericson  went  above  Empkins  and  De- 
mars  (Nos.  7  and  8)  and  staked  No.  lo.  Bruceth  and  I 
went  on  far  enough  to  be  out  of  the  way  of  a  clash  and 
staked — he  taking  No.  ii,and  I  No.  12. 

"  Regarding  the  discovery,  it  was  the  custom  in  the 
lower  country — not  only  on  the  American  side,  but  with- 
in Canadian  territory — to  allow  a  discovery  (consequent- 
ly a  double  claim)  upon  each  gulch.  But  the  edict  had 
recently  gone  forth  from  Fc^rty-^Iile  that  there  could  be 
but  one  discovery  on  a  creek,  and  none  on  a  'pup'  of  a 
main  creek.  The  discovery  had  been  allowed  to  Siwash 
(leorge,  so  that  there  could  be  no  discovery  claim  on 
this  fork. 

"  Another  custom  was  that  if  a  person,  after  having 

*  Wliipple  was  No.  1  ;  Pliiscater,  No.  2;  Clements,  No.  4; 
Keller,  No.  5;  and  Anton,  No.  6.  "  Discovery"  was  the  present 
No.  3.  Hmpkins,  in  rclatinjr  to  me  how  he  f(ot  in  on  Eldorado, 
said  that  he  and  his  three  companions  had  come  np  the  "  pup" 
and  found  Anton  and  the  others,  and  they  had  a  small  prospect 
on  the  surface,  but  they  were  told  it  was  not  encouraj^in^.  On 
that  account  two  of  the  party  did  ncjt  stake.  Kmpkins  sold  a  shart? 
in  the  claim  to  Fred  Hutchinson,  and  last  spring  received  §ioo,ocx) 
foi  the  remaining  interest. 


I 


: 


r 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

staked  in  one  place,  wished  to  locate  in  another,  he  must, 
before  he  could  hold  the  second,  cut  his  name  off  the  first. 
Anton  and  Keller  had  already  staked  on  upper  Bonanza, 
and  so  might  have  been  sincere  in  recommending  that 
part  of  the  creek  as  good.  While,  according  to  old  cus- 
tom, they  might  have  held  a  discovery  on  Eldorado,  they 
could  not   legally  do  so  now.      Consequently,  Halstead 


1^                                                        ^^u 

i— '                      -   .^Bim 

K                      ■         I.1-.     it                         "3 

"^     .     V    -B^V"!^    '            ^ 

- A.  ■  '». ' — jI. »_t : ,.--rir-,y\: 

VIEW    FROM    TIIF.    liOTTOM    OV   A   "CUT,       Sl'MMKK    DIGGINGS 
(no.    12    KI.DOKAnn) 


promptly  jumped  the  so-called  'discovery'  claim  that 
Whipple  was  trying  to  reserve  for  himself,  still  leaving 
him,  however,  with  one  claim  on  the  '  pup,'  besides  his 
Bonanza  claim.  He  was  stoutly  trying  to  hold  all 
three. 

"  A  party  of  Finns  soon  came  along,  headed  by  a  man 
named  Cobb.  They  did  not  stake,  but  went  on  and  turned 
up  Bonanza.  They  were  the  only  other  persons  on  the 
creek  that  day.     That  night  in  camp  we  discussed  nam- 

324 


NAMED    IT    "ELDORADO" 


c  must, 
he  first, 
oiianza, 
ng  that 
old  cus- 
do,  they 
lalstead 


-,INGS 

aim  that 

1  leaving 

!sides  his 

hold  all 

)y  a  man 
id  turned 
IS  on  the 
ised  nam- 


ing the  new  creek.  Old  man  Whipple  wanted  it  called 
'Whi[)ple  Creek.'  But  we  were  rather  hot  at  the  Whip- 
ple crowd  for  having  used  us  so  ill  in  trying  to  steer  us 


ONK  MI1,I,I:)N  I'lVK  lU'NDRF.D  TIIorsANI)  IXIII.ARS  IN  C.ol.n- 
DUSI',  !N  NOKIM  AMKKICAN  TKANSl'dK  lA  HON  AND  TRAD- 
ING company's  WARKHOUSE 

away  from  the  creek;  and,  besides,  old  man  Whi|)ple  had 
once  tried  to  jump  Ilalstead  and  li^ricson's  claim  on 
American  Creek.     After  several  names  were  mentioned, 

325 


i !     i' 


I  fli 


Jill  !  i 

!  I 


]Wi 


ni 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

Knut  Halstead  suggested  '  Eldorado,'  and  that  was  the 
name  determined  upon.  I  make  this  point,  as  certain 
later  comers  have  claimed  the  honor  of  naming  the  creek. 

"  Next  morning  Fred  Bruceth  got  up  at  five  o'clock 
and  went  down  after  McKay,  whom  the  miners  had  ap- 
pointed as  their  recorder,  letting  out  the  news  on  the  way. 
Among  the  first  Lo  arrive  were  Cobb  and  his  crowd. 
Hearing  of  the  prospect,  and  knowing  that  the  Whipple 
crowd  had  staked  Bonanza  also,  Cobb  stated  emphatically 
to  Whipple  that  unless  his  crowd  took  their  names  off . 
Bonanza  he  would  jump  their  claims  here.  Just  then 
Anton,  Clements,  and  Keller  came  up  to  where  we  were 
talking,  and  Bruceth  and  I,  who  felt  that  though  they  had 
tried  to  job  us,  yet  they  really  had  made  the  discovery 
and  were  entitled  to  the  ground,  tried  our  best  to  per- 
suade them  to  go  up  and  cut  off  their  names,  or  they 
would  lose  their  Eldorado  claims — they  certainly  could 
not  hold  both.  Whipple  kept  insisting  that  they  could. 
At  this  juncture  Phiscater  came  along. 

"  He  treated  with  disdain  Cobb's  threat  to  jump  their 
claims,  and  said  he  would  go  and  see  the  recorder. 
McKay  arrived  on  the  scene,  and  he  told  them  that  if 
they  cut  their  names  off  Bonanza  he  would  put  their 
names  down  on  the  new  creek.  This  Clements,  Anton, 
and  Keller  did. 

"The  first  of  a  gang  of  stampeders  who  had  arrived 
at  Dawson  on  the  steamer  now  appeared.  Among  these 
were  William  Scouse  and  William  Sloan,  who  took  Kos. 
14  and  15.* 

"  We  all  went  over  to  the  creek,  and  began  to  meas- 
ure and  record. 

*  Some  one  staked  No.  13  in  a  lictitimis  n;uiie,  to  try  to  hold 
for  a  friend,  and  this  was  afterwards  jumped  by  a  man  named 
Hoilingshead. 

336 


JUMPING"    CLAIMS 


"  Cobb  jumped  Phiscater's  claim,  as  he  would  not  take 
his  name  off  Bonanza.  The  name  of  the  creek  was  for- 
mally declared  to  be  '  Eldorado,'  as  agreed  upon  at  the 
meeting  the  night  before. 

"Cobb  lost  his  claim,  for  Captain  Constantine,  the 
acting  gold  commissioner,  decided  that  at  the  time  he 
jumped  there  was  plenty  of  as  good  ground  farther  up 
the  creek,  and  that  it  was  hoggish,  to  say  the  leact,  to 
jump  ground  where  a  discovery  of  gold  had  been  made. 
Had  all  the  five  claims  been  jumped,  instead  of  only 
one,  and  this  been  done  after  the  creek  had  been  staked, 
there  is  a  chance  whether  Anton,  Keller,  and  company 
would  not  have  lost  their  claims,  to  which  they  had  not 
the  slightest  legal  right  until  they  had  taken  their  names 
off  Bonanza,  and  the  reason  that  barred  Cobb  would  not 
have  applied  to  late-comers,  when  there  was  no  more 
ground  on  the  creek  above. 

"  The  spot  where  the  gold  was  discovered  was,  like  the 
discovery  on  Bonanza,  at  the  edge  of  the  creek,  on  the 
line  of  Nos.  2  and  3.  It  was  taken  from  a  cut  in  the 
bank,  and  was  practically  surface  gold  that  had  slid 
down  from  the  old  channel  on  the  hill-side.  It  was  noth- 
ing more  nor  less  than  'bench'  gold,  the  existence  of 
which  was  not  even  suspected  at  that  time.  From  a 
hole  eighteen  inches  deep  in  the  creek-bed,  and  under 
water,  as  high  as  $2  was  taken  out.  Bed-rock,  where 
the  real  richness  lay,  was  fifteen  or  sixteen  feet  below 
the  surface,  under  muck  and  gravel. 

"  The  next  morning,  at  6  a.m.,  we  started  back,  and 
reached  the  Indian  village  at  i  i'.m.,  crossed  over  to 
our  cache,  and  had  dinner.  Then  we  started  for  Forty- 
Mile,  which  we  reached  at  10.30  that  night,  and  next 
day  we  recorded  again,  and  finally,  at  Constantine's 
office." 

3-7 


Hi  I 


lii! 


!  I 


!i      lii  i 


ill 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

Mr.  Johns  little  realizing  the  value  of  his  claim,  sold  a 
half-interest  to  Knu^  Langlow  for  $500,  one-half  cash,  and 
one-half  to  be  paid  "on  bed-rock."     It  was  considered  he 

made  a  good  sale.  Some  while 
after  (information  having  pri- 
vately reached  parties  in  Forty- 
Mile)  he  sold  the  other  half  for 
$2500;  a  good  sale — also  a  good 

Anton  went  to  Forty  -  Mile 
after  staking.  He  was  short  of 
grub,  and  wanted  to  work  his 
claim.  Ordinarily  any  man  could 
get  credit  in  the  lower  country, 
but  when  Anton  applied  to  the 
Alaska  Commercial  Company  the 
temporary  agent  would  not  let 
him  have  it  unless  it  was  guaran- 
teed. Clarence  Berry  came  forward,  guaranteed  An- 
ton's bill,  and  received  in  return  a  half-interest  in  the 
claim.  Berry  further  traded  him  a  half-interest  in  an 
upper  Bonanza  claim,  then  supposed  to  be  of  no  value. 
Berry  was  sometimes  spoken  of  as  a  "  tin-horn  gambler," 
was  not  supposed  to  have  much  money,  and  he  was  never 
called  upon  to  make  the  guarantee  good.  It  was  whis- 
pered about  the  camp  that  the  agent  was  to  profit  by  the 
transaction.  However,  he  did  not.  Afterwards  Anton 
and  Berry  bought  controlling  interests  in  Nos.  4  and  5 
and  a  fraction  between  5  and  6.  Their  group  of  claims 
became  known  through  the  public  press  as  "  the  Berry 
claims." 

"Old  man"  Whipple  sold  out  for  a  song  to  Skiff 
Mitchell,  Tom  O'Brien,  and  two  others  known  as  the 
"  Big  Four."     Phiscater  sold  a  half-interest  in  No.  2  to 

328 


WILLIAM     O.    JOHNS     ON     A 
"  ST AMI'EUli  " 


E 


A    GOOD    INVESTMENT 


n,  sold  a 
;ash,and 
dered  he 
ne  while 
ing  pri- 
ll Forty- 
half  for 
)  a  good 

ty  -  Mile 
short  of 
vork    his 
lan  could 
country, 
d  to  the 
ipany  the 
not  let 
s  guaran- 
teed An- 
jst  in  the 
est  in  an 
no  value, 
gambler," 
was  never 
was  whis- 
jfit  by  the 
ds  Anton 
s.  4  and  5 
of  claims 
the  Berry 


a  man  named  Price  for  $800,  and  then  bought  out  his 
interest  in  the  claim,  together  with  half  a  dump  they 
had  taken  out  during  the  winter,  for  $15,000,  paid  $2000 
down,  and  the  balance  out  of  the  dump  when  it  was 
sluiced,  with  a  big  margin  besides. 


OPEMXO   IIP   A   NKW   CLAIM 


Such  was  the  beginning  of  gold-mining  on  the  richest 
creek  in  the  Klondike. 


n 


i 


r  to  SkiflE 
vn  as  the 
1  No.  2  to 


!  j*j|  I  j! 


m 


CHAPTER   XVI 

Midwinter — Short  of  drub — Frontier  Institutions — The  Opera- House — 
Saloons  and  Dance-Halls — A  Gloomy  Christmas — A  Winter's  ISill  of 
Fare — Gold- Dust  as  Money — Klondike  Hotels — Sickness — A  Strange 
P'uneral — Northern  Lights — Curious  Eflects  of  Snow — Women  in  the 
V'ukon — Yukon  Order  of  Pioneers — First  News  from  Outside — First 
Letters  from  Honri — I'at  Galvin  —  Hardships  along  the  Trail 

IX  thousand  souls  wintered  in  Daw- 
son, of  whom  five -sixths  did  not 
know  whether  their  stock  of  pro- 
visions would  last  till  spring. 
The  meagre  stock  remaining  in  the 
stores  was  doled  out  a  few  pounds  at  a 
time,  after  an  interview  with  the  agent  in  person.  The 
North  American  Trading  and  Transportation  Company 
had  about  seventy  duplicate  orders,  left  by  men  who  took 
outfits  from  the  other  store.  These  outfits,  comprising 
each  a  sack  or  two  of  flour,  were  sold  at  the  regular 
store  prices  ;  indeed,  although  the  minfers  whose  outfits 
were  short,  and  others  who  for  any  cause  were  refused 
provisions,  vehemently  asserted  that  the  agent  was  s[)ec- 
ulating  in  the  necessaries  of  life,  no  pound  of  goods 
was  sold  by  that  store  for  more  than  the  original  price. 
T'le  fact  of  two  such  extremely  difl:ering  prices  existing 
at  the  same  moment  is  incomprehensible  luuil  the  con- 
ditions are  understood. 

On  the  loth  of  January  the  speculative  price  of  pro- 

330 


NO    DANGER    OF    STARVATION 


visions  still  averaged  $\  a  pound  ;  but  in  Dawson  flour 
had  fallen  to  $50  a  sack  for  first-grade,  and  $35  a  sack 
for  second-grade.  And  as  bearing  out  the  contention  of 
Captain  Healy,  that  the  miners  in  the  gulches  were,  on 
the  whole,  well  provided  for,  flour  on  the  same  date  was 
selling  in  open  market  on  Eldorado  for  $25  a  sack  ;  and 
butter,  which  had  risen  from  the  store-price  of  $1  a 
pound,  was  freighted  to  Dawson  from  Bonanza  Creek, 
one  whole  case  of  forty-eight  two-pound  tins  being  pur- 
chased by  the  "  Eldorado  "  restaurant  for  $480.  In  one 
miner's  cache  on  Eldorado  there  was  known  to  be  eighty- 
one  sacks  of  flour,  and  long  before  relief  came  from  out- 
side a  general  unloading  began  and  flour  dropped  to  the 
moderate  price  of  $100  for  six  sacks. 

Parties  went  out,  intending  to  bring  in  o^^er  the  ice 
large  quantities  of  food,  believing  it  would  sell  at  $2  a 
pound  before  spring,  but  they  did  not  realize  that  the 
market  was  limited,  that  a  few  persons  might  pay  fabu- 
lous prices,  but  the  great  majority  could  not  do  so  even  if 
they  starved.  One  man  in  Dawson  tried  to  corner  flour. 
At  considerable  expense  he  secured  one  hundred  and 
eighty  sacks  from  down  river  and  other  sources.  He 
refused  $75  a  sack,  expecting  to  realize  .Hilioo,  when  flour 
fell  in  price,  and  he  just  saved  himself  by  unloading. 

Captain  Healy,  whose  firm  and  certainly  arbitrary  atti- 
tude in  the  matter  of  food  earned  for  him  the  reputation 
of  being  the  most  unpopular  man  in  Dawson,  none  the 
less  was  an  unusual  and  interesting  personality.  For 
forty  years  he  was  a  trader  on  the  northwestern  fron- 
tier;  a  member  of  the  Elk  or  Warrior  band  of  the  Black- 
feet;  scout  in  the  campaign  against  Chief  Joseph;  sheriff 
at  Fort  Benton,  on  the  Missouri  River ;  next,  trader  at 
Dyea,  and  now  in  the  Yukon  ;  in  person,  rather  small, 
with  sallow  complexion,  gray  hair,  mustache,  and  goatee, 

331 


T  H  I<:    K  L  ( )  N  I)  I  K  E    vS  T  A  M  P  E  I)  E 

and  a  cold,  unflinching  l)liic  eye— the  type  of  man  in 
whose  exploits  the  history  of  the  West  abounds,  to  whom 
personal  fear  is  unknown,  accustomed  to  deal  single- 
handed  with  any  emergency;  but  he  has  confessed  that 
from  the  start  the  problem  of  overcoming  the  natural 
obstacles  and  of  meeting  the  growing  demands  of  the 
Yukon  had  been  one  of  the  hardest  purely  business 
"propositions"  he  hud  ever  had  to  face. 

With  the  fear  of  famine  over  us,  and  some  allowing 
themselves  but  one  meal  a  day,  or  indulging  even  in 
bacon  only  twice  a  week,  there  were  few  with  the  equa- 
nimity of  our  genial  friend  Captain  Anderson,  Arizona 
frontiersman,  who  wrote  to  the  anxious  ones  at  home 
that  he  didn't  know  whether  there  was  going  to  be 
starvation  or  not,  but,  anyhow,  he  was  eating  the  best 
first  and  saving  the  poorest  till  last.  Some  verses  writ- 
ten at  the  time  by  my  versatile  neighbor,  Russell  Bates, 
draw  no  imaginary  picture  : 

"tIIK    hOKK    FLAI'JACK 

"One  cold  Alaska's  winter  day 
I  sat  within  my  lonely  shack  ; 
Witliout,  old  Boreas  held  full  swav 
While  cold  came  in  through  eve  ,lv. 

Upon  the  stove  was  scarce  a  snac 
My  daily  meal,  a  lone  flapjack. 

"  Upon  the  floor  my  flour  lay — 

In  all  'twas  less  than  Iialf  a  sack. 
My  beans  and  bacon  on  that  day 

Would  hardly  constitute  a  pack. 
Could  I  live  on  till  first  of  May 
Upon  one  lone  flapjack  a  day .'' 

"While  pondering  thus,  and  looking  back — 
For  I  never  in  my  life  did  lack 
332 


1 


>liil 


- 
v. 


^(^^^ 


CHRISTMAS    DINNER 

Three  sumptuous,  liearty  meals  a  day— 
Judfrc  Mastason,  to  my  dismay. 
Came  in  and  said,  '  My  dear  old  Mac, 
Can  you  give  me  a  hot  flapjack  ?' 

My  I'licud  has  gone,  the  days  seem  black, 

I   miss  his  henrty,  genial  way. 
His  friends  at  home  will  test  his  sack 

"Mid  popping  corks,  as  good  friends  may 
But  should  the  spring  convey  him  back. 
He's  welcome  to  my  lone  flapjack!" 


It  was  reported  that  a  turkey  reached  Dawson  at 
Christinas.  That  was  a  mistake.  On  April  loth,  how- 
ever, a  turkey,  ready  cooked  and  dressed,  was  brought 
by  a  Dutchman  over  the  ice  from  Skagway  and  was  ex- 
hibited for  several  days  to  the  wistful  gaze  of  the  public 
in  the  "Pioneer"  saloon,  where  it  was  finally  raffled  ofif, 
netting  the  owner  $174;  but  the  owner  said  he  would  not 
go  through  the  hardships  of  the  trip  in  for  the  same  price 


agam. 


The  day  before  Christmas  my  cabin  partner  announced 
that  he  h^d  invited  some  friends  to  dinner.  Heavens  ! 
I  looked  tinder  the  bunk  where  our  stock  of  grub  was 
safely  stored.  There  was  still  plenty  of  bacon,  but  bacon 
three  times  a  day  loses  its  zest  in  course  of  time.  There 
was  plenty  of  Hour,  but  neither  of  us  could  bake  bread. 
We  had  been  living  on  soup- vegetables  and  beans  for 
several  days,  in  consequence  of  forgetting  to  sweeten 
eighteen  loaves  of  sour -dough  bread  with  soda,  which 
loaves  not  even  |)assing  dogs  would  eat.  The  outlook, 
therefore,  was  a  dinner  of  soup,  flapjacks,  and  beans — not 
even  the  usual  "three  B's,"  bread,  beans,  and  bacon,  of 
Alaska  fare.  Our  last  tin  of  condensed  milk  was  gone, 
and  there  was  none  to  be  had  for  love  or  money.     Our 

335 


II 


'I  > 


m 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 


remaining  butter — part  of  a  firkin  bought  at  Dyea — we 
now  called  either  "butter"  or  "cheese";  it  might  pass 
for  either.  It  looked  as  if  it  would  have  to  be  flapjack 
and  beans  for  dinner.  Pelletier,  with  a  wise  look  on  his 
face,  said,  "  Leave  it  to  me  !"  That  night  he  came  back 
with  some  bundles,  which  he  threw  down  on  the  table, 
and  proudly  unwrapped  a  can  of  condensed  cream,  two 
cans  of  French  pease,  and — a  can  of  turkey  !  A  man  of 
marvellous  resources  was  he,  but  even  yet  I  do  not  un- 
derstand how  he  managed  to  get  the  turkey. 

By  means  of  the  turkey  (though  the  cranberry  sauce 
was  lacking),  and  under  the  direction  of  old  Joe  Liberty, 
an  old  Juneau  pioneer  who  was  living  with  us,  we  made  out 
well.  One  of  our  guests  was  about  to  start  for  the  coast, 
and  to  him  it  was  a  farewell  dinner  as  well — a  better  one 
than  many  a  poor  fellow  was  having  on  the  trail  that  day. 

I  heard  a  man  say  Dawson  was  the  first  place  he  was 
ever  in  where  it  was  no  disgrace  to  be  "dead  broke." 
Gold-dust  was,  of  course,  the  medium  of  exchange.  But 
the  profits  of  mine-owners  and  the  wages  of  workmen, 
amounting  to  millions,  were  frozen  fast  in  the  dumps  of 
Eldorado  and  Bonanza,  and  there  was  but  little  money 
to  spend.  A  man  with  a  good  claim  could  get  a  certain 
amount  of  credit,  but  the  bulk  of  the  business  was  trans- 
acted in  cash.  !Money  commanded  5  to  10  per  cent,  a 
month.  The  commercial  companies  and  the  saloons 
were  the  custodians  of  dust.  A  miner  would  hand  his 
sack  containing  perhaps  thousands  of  dollars  to  a  saloon- 
keeper, who  put  it  in  an  unlocked  drawer,  where  it  was 
as  safe  as  in  a  bank  outside. 

In  a  new  mining- camp  the  saloon  is  the  centre  of 
social  life.  At  Dawson,  shut  out  from  the  world,  under 
conditions  that  tried  the  very  souls  of  men,  it  was  less 
wonder  that  men  were  drawn   together  into   the  only 

33^^ 


SALOONS 


ca — we 
at  pass 
lap jack 
on  his 
ne  back 
table, 
am,  two 
man  of 
not  un- 

:y  sauce 

Liberty, 

nade  out 

he  coast, 

3tter  one 

that  day. 

13  he  was 

1  broke." 

ge.     But 

vorkmen, 

lumps  of 

le  money 

a  certain 

ras  trans- 

;r  cent,  a 

i   saloons 

hand  his 

a  saloon- 

■re  it  was 

centre  of 

Id,  under 

was  less 

the  only 


public  places  where  a  friendly  fire  burned  by  day  and 
night,  and  where,  in  the  dim  light  of  a  kerosene  lamp, 
they  might  see  one  another's  faces.  The  Yukon  saloon 
was  a  peculiar  institution  (I  feel  that  I  am  describing 
something  that  passed  away  when  the  horde  of  new- 
comers came  later).     Most  of  the  proprietors  were  old- 


A    DAWSON   SAI.dON 

timers  who  had  been  miners,  men  of  honor  and  char- 
acter, resijccted  in  a  community  where  a  man  was  valued, 
not  according  to  his  pretensions  or  position  in  "society," 
but  in  proportion  to  his  manliness  and  intrinsic  worth. 
Class  lines  are  not  drawn  sharply  in  a  mining-camp,  and 
the  freedom  from  the  restraint  of  society  and  home 
makes  temptation  greater  than  many  can  withstand. 
V  337 


H 


THE    KLONDIKE    vSTAMPEDE 

Taken  as  a  whole,  the  experience  of  a  year  in  the  Klon- 
dike is  such  as  to  search  out  the  Haw  in  the  weak  but 
to  strengthen  the  character  of  the  strong. 

Of  the  half-dozen  or  more  places  of  amusement  and 
recreation,  the  most  pretentious  was  the  "  Oi)era-House," 
a  large  log  building,  with  a  bar  and  various  gambling 
lay-outs  in  the  front,  and  a  theatre  in  the  rear,  with  a 
stage,  boxes  at  each  side,  and  benches  on  the  floor  for 
the  audience.  It  gave  vaudeville  performances,  lasting 
several  Hours  each  evening,  the  performers  being  mostly 
a  troupe  who  stampeded  with  the  rest  from  Circle  City. 
The  price  of  admission,  strange  to  say,  was  at  the  low 
price  of  "four  bits,"  or  half  a  dollar,  admission  being  se- 
cured, according  to  the  usual  Yukon  custom,  by  first  pur- 
chasing for  that  sum  a  drink  or  a  cigar  at  the  bar.  At 
the  end  of  the  performance  the  benches  were  taken  up, 
and  dancing  began  and  continued  all  night.  The  re- 
ceipts of  the  place  were  enormous,  footing  upwards  of 
$22,000  a  month.  Early  on  Thanksgiving  morning, 
after  an  uproarious  mascjuerade  ball,  the  dry  building 
caught  fire,  and  next  morning  saw  only  the  blackened 
ruins  of  Dawson's  first  theatre.  After  the  burning  of 
the  "  Opera- House,"  the  talent  took  to  various  occupa- 
ti(Mis,  most  of  the  women  securing  work  at  the  one  re- 
maining dance-hall,  the  "  M.  &  M.,"  generally  known  as 
"  Pete's  Place,"  within  whose  hospitable  walls  on  cold 
nights  It  cost  the  "busted  "  chcclnxhko  nothing  to  warm 
himself  at  the  stove,  to  listen  to  the  music,  to  look  on 
at  the  scene  of  gayety,  and  wet  his  dry  throat  at  the  wa- 
ter-barrel. A  water-barrel  in  a  saloon,  think  of  it! 
Yes,  in  the  old-time  Yukon  saloon  it  stood  in  a  corner, 
or  at  the  end  of  the  bar,  and  was  kept  filled  w'th  pure 
cold  water  at  a  cost  of  $10  a  barrel,  while  a  tin  dipper 
hung  on  a  nail  for  the  use  of  all. 

338 


i 


IE 


"PETE'S    PLACE" 


the  Klon- 
wcuk  but 

;ment  and 
a-Mousc," 
gambling 
ar,  with  a 
i  floor  for 
es,  lasting 
ng  mostly 
ircle  City. 
;it  the  low 
1  being  se- 
y  first  pur- 
e  bar.     At 
taken  up, 
The  re- 
ip wards  of 
morning, 
y  building 
blackened 
burning  of 
us  occupa- 
the  one  re- 
known  as 
lis  on  cold 
g  to  warm 
to  look  on 
at  the  wa- 
link  of  it  ! 
n  a  corner, 
with  pure 
tin  dipper 


"Pete's"  was  a  two-story  log  building,  the  up])ei; 
story  being  the  living-rooms  of  the  proprietor.  One 
entered  from  the  street,  in  a  vdiisk  of  steam  that  coated 
the  door-jamb  with  snowy  frost,  into  a  low-ceiled  room 
some  thirty  by  forty  feet  in  dimensions.  The  bar,  a  [)ine 
counter  stained  red,  with  a  large  mirror  and  bottles 
and  glasses  behind,  was  on  the  left  hand.  A  lunch- 
counter  stood  on  the  right,  while  in  the  rear,  and  fenced 
off  by  a  low  wooden  railing,  but  leaving  a  way  clear  to  the 
bar,  was  the  space  reserved  for  dancing.  Here,  in  the 
glow  of  three  or  four  dim,  smoky  kerosene  lamps,  around 
a  great  sheet-iron  "ram-down"  stove,  kept  always  red- 
hot,  would  always  be  found  a  motley  crowd  —  miners, 
government  officials,  mounted  policemen  in  uniform, 
gamblers,  both  amateur  and  professional,  in  "citified" 
clothes  and  boiled  shirts,  old-timers  and  new-comers, 
claim-brokers  and  men  with  claims  to  sell,  busted  men 
and  millionaires — they  elbowed  each  other,  talking  and 
laughing,  or  silently  looking  on,  all  in  friendly  good- 
nature. 

Pete  himself,  one  of  the  few  saloon-keepers  who  had 
not  been  miners  in  the  "  lower  country,"  served  the 
drinks  behind  the  bar  in  shirt-sleeves,  with  his  round 
head  and  bull-dog  expression,  hair  carefully  oiled  and 
parted,  and  dark,  curled  mustache,  smiling,  courteous, 
and  ignorant— a  typical  'outside"  bar-tender. 

The  orchestra  consisted  of  a  piano,  violin,  and  flute,  and 
occupied  chairs  on  a  raised  platform  in  one  corner  of  the 
dance-floor.  The  ladies  were  never  backward  in  impor- 
tuning partners  for  the  dance;  but  any  reluctance  upon 
the  part  of  would-be  dancers  was  overcome  by  a  young 
man  in  shirt-sleeves,  who  in  a  loud,  penetrating  voice 
would  begin  to  exhort : 

"Come  on,  boys — you  can  all  waltz — let's  have  a  nice, 

339 


i\U 


ev 


If!   i 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

long,  juicy  waltz  ;"  and  then,  when  three  or  four  couples 
had  taken  the  floor,  "P^ire  away!"  he  wouki  call  to  the 
musicians,  and  then  the  fun  began.  When  the  dancers 
had  circled  around  the  room  five  or  six  times  the  music 
would  stop  with  a  jerk,  and  the  couples,  with  a  precision 
derived  from  long  practice,  would  swing  towards  the 
bar,  and  push  their  way  through  the  surging  mass  of 
interested  lookers-on,  or  "  rubber- necks,"  in  fur-caps, 
Mackinaws,  and  /xirkas,  and  line  up  in  front  of  the  bar. 

"What  "11  you  have,  gents — a  little  whiskey?" 

Sacks  were  tossed  out  on  the  bar,  Pete  pushed  in  front 
of  each  "gent"  a  small  "blower,"  and  the  "gent"  poured 
in  some  gold-dust,  which  Pete  took  to  a  large  gold-scale 
at  the  end  of  the  bar,  weighed  out  $i,  and  returned  the 
balance  to  the  sack.  The  lady  received  as  her  commis- 
sion on  the  dance  a  round,  white  ivory  chip,  good  for  25 
cents. 

Hardly  had  the  dancers  stopped  before  the  caller-off, 
"  Eddy,"  upon  whose  skill  in  keeping  the  dances  going 
depended  the  profits  of  the  house,  began  again  in  his 
loud  voice,  coaxing,  imploring  —  "Come  on,  boys,"  or, 
"Grab  a  lady,  boys,  'n'  have  a  nice  quadrille."  And  so 
it  went  on  all  night,  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  dances 
being  not  unusual  before  daylight  appeared  through 
the  frosted  panes.  Often  the  same  men  danced  and 
caroused  night  after  night,  until  their  "pokes,"  or  gold- 
.sacks,  grew  lean,  and  then  they  disappeared  up  the  gulcli 
again. 

Whenever  a  man  started  in  to  dance  more  than  one 
dance  he  usually  paid  for  several  in  advance,  receiving 
what  are  called  "allemande  left"  chips.  There  was  a  dif- 
ference of  opinion,  which  I  believe  has  never  been  set- 
tled, as  to  when  a  cJicchahko  is  entitled  to  ci,  .i  himself 
an  "old-timer."     Some  say  after  his  first  winter  in  the 

340 


'i 


"HOOTCH" 


Yukon  ;  others  contend  not  until  after  he  has  bought 
his  first  "allemande  left"  chip. 

Some  of  the  women  were  employed  at  a  salary  of  $125 
a  week  and  commissions  on  extras  such  as  champagne, 
which  cost  those  who  cared  to  indulge  in  that  luxury 
$40  a  quart.  The  majority  of  women  received  only  the 
25  cents'  commission,  but  sometimes,  if  industrious  or 
good-looking,  they  made  $25  or  even  more  a  night. 

The  whiskey  varied  greatly  in  quality,  some  being 
very  bad,  while  the  best,  by  the  time  it  reached  the  con- 
sumer, was  apt  to  be  diluted  to  the  last  degree. 

Whenever  whiskey  runs  short  the  Yukoner  falls  back 
upon  a  villanous  decoction  made  of  sour  dough,  or  dough 
and  brown  sugar,  or  sugar  alone,  and  known  as  "  hootch- 
inoo,"  or  "hootch."  The  still  is  made  of  coal-oil  cans, 
Liie  worm  of  pieces  of  India-rubber  boot-tops  cemented 
together.  This  crude  still  is  heated  over  an  ordinary 
Yukon  stove.  The  liquor  obtained  is  clear  white,  and 
is  flavored  with  blueberries  or  dried  peaches,  to  suit  the 
taste.  It  must  be  very  bad,  for  its  manufacture  is  for- 
bidden by  law;  they  say  it  will  drive  a  man  crazy;  but 
there  were  persons  willing  to  take  their  oath  that  the 
regular  whiskey  sold  over  some  of  the  bars  was  worse 
than  "hootch."  A  home-brewed  beer,  or  ale,  was  also 
served,  a  whiskey  glassful  costing  50  cents.  Cigars  were 
mostly  a  poor  five-cent  grade. 

An  example  of  the  better  class  of  Dawson  saloon  was 
the  "  Pioneer,"  or  "  Mooschorn,"  a  favorite  resort  of  old- 
timers.  The  proprietors,  Messrs.  Densmore,  Spencer 
&  McPhee,  were  types  of  the  early  Yukon  pioneer. 
Frank  Densmore,  in  fact,  was  among  the  first  who 
crossed  the  pass,  and  he  rocked  for  gold  on  the  bars  of 
the  upper  Yukon  a  dozen  years  before  the  Klondike  was 
known.     I  recall  the  "  Pioneer  "  as  a  large,  comfortable 

34 « 


fi' 


/!!■ 


m 


f  I 


\i 


THE   KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

room,  with  the  usual  bar  on  one  side,  having  a  massive 
mirror  behind,  and  several  large  moose  and  caribou  antlers 
on  the  walls,  a  number  of  unpaintcd  tables  and  benches 
and  chairs,  the  latter  always  filled  with  men  talking  over 
their  pipes,  reading  much-worn  newspapers  (six  months 
out  of  date),  a  few  engaged  in  games  of  poker,  and  nine- 
tenths  "dead  broke,"  but  as  welcome,  apparently,  as  the 
most  reckless  rounder  who  spilled  his  dust  over  the  bar. 
It  struck  the  outsider  with  wonder,  the  seeming  indif- 
ference of  the  proprietors  whether  one  patronized  the 
bar  or  not,  for  what  other  interpretation  can  one  place 
on  a  water-barrel  at  the  end  of  the  bar  ?  Then,  too, 
the  "busted  "  man  of  to-day  might  be  the  "  millionaire  " 
of  to-morrow;  but  the  reason  lay  deeper  than  that. 
There  were  men  destined  not  to  haVe  fortunes.  Very 
late  at  night,  when  Dawson  had  turned  in  for  a  snatch 
of  sleep,  one  might  see  them  lying  on  benches  and  ta- 
bles, homeless,  stranded  men,  half -sick  and  dependent 
from  day  to  day  on  the  charity  of  strangers,  and  who, 
but  for  this  welcome  bench  or  table,  had  no  place  to 
lay  their  heads.  Something  of  the  generous  spirit  of 
the  old  Yukon  life  made  these  men  welcome. 

Gambling  is  a  miner's  proper  amusement,  provided  he 
also  pays  his  bills.  Every  saloon  had  its  gambling  lay- 
outs. "Black-jack,"  poker,  roulette,  and  craps  were 
played  assiduously,  some  having  a  preference  for  one, 
some  for  another,  but  the  favorite  game  was  faro.  A 
crowd  might  always  be  found  around  the  faro-table,  either 
keeping  track  of  "cases,"  or  simply  looking  on  at  the 
play.  Twenty-five  cents  was  the  lowest  chip,  the  white, 
the  reds  and  blues  being  respectively  ^i  and  !t|;5.  Tlie 
"dealer,"  sitting  behind  the  table  and  tnrning  tiie  cards 
with  mechanical  regularity,  and  the  "  lookout,"  who  saw 
that  "no  bets  were  overlooked,"  were  paitl  a  salary  of 

342 


I 


T 


1 


lassive 
Lintlers 
enchcs 
ig  over 
iionths 
d  nine- 
,  as  the 
he  bar. 
r  indif- 
ied  the 
e  place 
en,  too, 
onaire" 
n   that. 
.     Very 
I  snatch 
and  ta- 
pendent 
md  who, 
place  to 
spirit  of 

vided  he 
fling  lay- 
:ips  were 
for  one, 
faro.  A 
)le,  either 
>n  at  the 
he  white, 

the  cards 
who  saw 
salary  of 


IinriNC   THK   m.oWEK  "  (paving   a   lili.I,   IN  cold-uust) 


5  V 

i 

ill. 

GAMBLING 


■H 


$15  to  $20  a  day,  and  each  faro-tablo  had  lo  win  from 
$50  to  $iio  every  day  to  make  a  profit  for  the  house, 
from  which  a  moral  may  be  deduced  as  to  the  wicked- 
ness of  playing  faro — on  the  wrong  side  of  the  table. 
At  times  the  play  was  very  large  and  correspondingly 
exciting.  A  young  boy  who  had  sold  a  rich  claim 
"dropped"  $18,000  in  the  course  of  thirty  -  six  hours' 
play.  Hundreds  of  dollars  were  made  or  lost  on  the 
turn  of  a  card.  One  day  a  "dog-puncher,"  Joe  Brand, 
walked  in  and  threw  down  his  sack  on  the  "high  card," 
saying,  "  That's  good  for  a  hundred."  He  won,  and 
was  given  an  order  on  the  weigher  for  $100.  Holding 
up  the  slip,  he  asked,  "Is  this  good  for  the  drinks?" 
"It  is,"  was  the  reply,  and  he  ordered  up  glasses  to  the 
number  of  two  hundred,  had  them  filled  with  whiskey, 
and  then  invited  every  one  up  to  drink.  A  number  in  the 
saloon  hung  back,  whom  he  vainly  sought  to  make  drink. 
He  passed  off  the  refusal  with  a  laugh,  saying  that  it  must 
be  pretty  mean  whiskey  when  no  one  would  drink  it. 
The  balance  was  [)laced  to  his  credit  for  anc^her  time. 

I  saw  another  man,  a  well-known  character,  at  a 
"black-jack"  table  in  a  few  minutes  coolly  lose  an  even 
$1000,  and  then  just  to  show  he  didn't  mind,  he  "ordered 
up"  the  whole  house,  treating  every  one  in  the  saloon,  at 
half  a  dollar  a  head,  to  whiskey  and  cigars. 

Jake,  a  little  Jew  who  ran  a  lunch-counter  at  "Pete's," 
was  particularly  fond  of  dancing  and  "craps."  a  game  he 
doubtless  learned  when  a  messenger  boy  in  Philadelphia. 
After  a  prosperous  day's  business  Jake  would  "stake" 
a  dollar,  and  if  he  won  a  sufficient  sum  he  would  spend 
the  night  dancing.  He  was  too  good  a  business  man  to 
spend  the  profits  of  business  dancing,  and  so  we  always 
knew  when  we  saw  Jake  on  the  floor  that  he  had  been 
lucky  that  day  at  craps. 

345 


I 


li!: 


I 


THE    KLONDIKE    vSTAMl'EDE 

Naturally  a  restaurant  was  a  profitable  undertaking 
to  a  person  with  a  well-filled  eaehe.  The  artieles  on  the 
bill  of  fare  were  limited  in  number,  uncertain  in  quan- 
tity, but  imfailingly  high  in  price.  An  eating -place, 
with  the  high-sounding  name  of  "The  Eldorado,"  stood 
in  a  space  hardly  more  than  ten  feet  wide,  between  two 
larger  buildings,  and  consisted  of  a  room  front  and  back, 
the  front  room  being  supplied  with  three  unpainted 
spruce  tables  and  rough  board  stools,  and  a  narrow 
counter  between  the  door  and  window,  on  which  stood 
the  gold-scales.  In  the  rear  was  the  kitchen.  The  rough 
log  walls  of  this  *'I)elmonico's"of  Dawson  were  plastered 
with  signs,  it  la  Bowery,  reading:  "Meal,  $3.50";  "Por- 
terhouse Steak,  $8";  "  Sirloin  Steak,  $5."  The  meal  con- 
sisted of  a  bit  of  moose  meat,  or  beef,  beans,  a  small  dish 
of  stewed  apples  or  peaches,  one  "helping"  of  bread  and 
butter,  and  one  cup  of  tea  or  coffee.  In  a  tent  on  the 
water-front  a  man  and  his  wife  were  said  to  have  accu- 
mulated $30,000  as  the  winter's  profits,  selling  coffee 
and  pies,  etc.  In  the  "Dominion"  saloon  was  a  lunch- 
counter  kept  by  a  free-thinking  Jew,  who  discussed  phi- 
losophy with  his  customers  as  he  served  out  plates  of 
soup  at  $1  each.  At  Jake's  there  hung  all  winter  the 
following  bill  of  fare,  drawn  in  large  black  letters  on  a 
sheet  of  Bristol-board : 

HILL    OF    FARB 

Sandwiches $  75  each. 

Dough-nuts 75  per  order. 

Pies 75     "    i^nt- 

Turnovers 75     "    order. 

(linger  cake 75     "    cut. 

Coltee  cake i.oo    " 

Caviare  sandwiches i.oci  each. 

Sardine  "  1.00     " 


-ra 


A  N    K  X  V  K  N  S  I V  E    A/  E  N  U 

Stewed  fruits $  .50  per  dish. 

Canned  fruits i.c»  " 

Sardines 1.25  "  order. 

Cold  meats 1.50  " 

Raw  Hamburg  steak 2.00  " 

Chocolate  or  cocoa 75  "  cup. 

Tea  or  cofTce 50  "      " 

The  card  and  the  printing  together  cost  $r5,  probably 
one  of  the  most  ex{)ensive  menu  cards  in  the  world. 
Jake's  visible  stock  seldom  consisted,  at  any  one  time,  of 
more  than  a  bottle  of  Worcestershire  sauce,  a  pie,  a  few 
tins  of  sardines,  some  tins  of  milk,  a  pan  of  beans,  and  a 
loaf  of  bread,  which  were  temptingly  displayed  on  three 
rndc  shelves  against  the  back  wall.  In  A[)ril,s()me  oysters 
came  in  by  dog-team.  Jake  paid  $18  and  $20  for  several 
tins  holding  two  dozen  oysters — less  than  a  pint.  There- 
after an  oyster-stew  could  be  had  for  the  modest  sum  of 
f^\e^.  Another  person  gave  $25  each  for  two  of  the  same 
tins.  A  shrewd  Yankee,  with  a  winning  smile,  started  a 
bakery  in  the  Ladue  cabin  in  the  middle  of  the  street 
and  made  bread  and  pies,  selling  them  for  %\  each. 
Later  he  branched  out  into  a  restaurant,  and  took  out  a 
fortune. 

Gold-dust  is  not  an  economical  or  convenient  currency. 
Out  of  every  $50  expended  in  making  small  purchases, 
there  would  be  a  regular  loss  of  $4  to  $6,  due  partly  to 
the  custom  of  the  weigher  taking  the  "turn"  of  the 
scale,  partly  to  carelessness,  and  partly  to  actual  theft. 
In  changing  dollars  and  cents  into  ounces  and  penny- 
weights, it  is  easy  to  purposely  miscalculate  or  substi- 
tute larger  weights.  And  then  the  small  traders  had 
only  the  pocket  prospector's  scales,  which  often  were 
considerably  out  of  balance.  The  proprietor  of  one 
restaurant  told  me  that  although  he  made  it  a  rule  not 

347 


( 


■k 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

to  take  the  "  turn"  of  the  scale,  he  invariably  found  him- 
self several  dollars  ahead  at  the  end  of  the  day. 

When  the  miner  came  to  town  on  business,  or  on  pleas- 
ure bent,  unless  he  had  a  cabin,  or  friends  to  take  him  in, 
he  was  obliged  to  choose  between  staying  up  all  night  in 
the  saloons  or  going  to  one  of  the  half-dozen  establish- 
ments by  courtesy  designated  "hotels."  Not  even  a 
person  whose  sensibilities  had  been  blunted  by  a  year  in 


"Jake's,"  whf.ke  an  oyster-stew  cost  $15 

the  Yukon  could  abide  in  one  even  for  t)ne  night  in  com- 
fort or  safety.  The  "hotel"  was  a  two-story  building. 
On  the  first  floor  was  the  bar,  whicli  served  for  the 
clerk's  desk  as  well,  the  rear  of  the  place  l)eing  the 
family  quarters  of  the  proprietor.  Upon  payment  of  $2, 
always  demanded  in  advance,  the  clerk,  bar-tender,  or 
proprietor — who  was  often  one  and  the  same  person — 
would  lead  the  way  with  a  candle  up  a  rickety  stairs 
to  an  ui)per  room,  which  commonly  extended  the  whole 

348 


A    F  T  R  S  T  -  C  T.  A  S  S    HOT  K  T. 


■■■■ 


length  oi  tlic  huikling-,  with  diiIv  lln'  ralttTs  ovcM'hcad. 
Sometimes  this  room  was  (h'\ '-.'ed  into  small  rooms  or 
pens  by  partitions  as  high  as  t  ne's  head,  with  just  s\)m-c 
for  a  single  cot ;  or  else  the  interior  was  lilk'il  with  tiers 
of  double- decked  bunks  of  rude  scantling,  accommo- 
dating twenty  or  thirty  sleepers.  The  bedding  in  each 
bunk  consisted  of  rough  blankets  and  a  very  small  pil- 
low. There  was  a  nail  in  the  wall  to  hang  one's  coat 
upon  (for  that  was  all  a  person  was  expected  to  take 
off,  except  his  shoes  or  moccasins),  and  the  landlord  left 
a  bit  of  candle  to  light  the  guest  to  bed.  The  only  ven- 
tilation to  this  upper  room  was  through  generous  cracks 
in  the  floor  and  a  small  window  at  each  end,  which  in 
cold  weather  were  kept  scrupulously  shut.  When  heated 
to  a  torrid  pitch  by  a  large  stove  on  the  lower  floor,  with 
every  bunk  full  of  unwashed  men  who  have  taken  off 
their  rubber  boots  or  mukluks^  the  air  of  this  veritable 
"bull-p'.r.  "  before  morning  was  such  that  no  one  could 
be  ind'.icc  1  to  repeat  the  experience  except  when  con- 
froiir.ed  with  the  positive  alternative  of  lying  out  of  doors 
without  protection  from  the  cold.  Even  worse  than  the 
thick,  nauseating  atmosphere  were  the  vermin  with 
which  the  blankets  were  alive,  as  there  was  no  possible 
means  in  winter  of  getting  rid  of  them  short  of  destruc- 
tion of  the  bedding.  They  are  already  the  bane  of  the  dig- 
gings, hardly  one  of  the  cabins  on  the  older  creeks  being 
free  from  the  iniwelconie  occupants.  Clothes- washing- 
was  an  expensive  item,  unless  one;  did  it  himself.  No  arti- 
cle was  less  than  50  cents,  and  it  was  ity  no  mi-ans  a  large 
wash  that  came  to  %\q.  Heavy  blankets  could  not  be 
washed  at  all.  Persons  regarded  themselves  as  ])ar- 
ticularly  cleanly  if  they  changed  underwear  every  tw(j 
weeks. 

The  hard  life  led  by  the  miner  in  winter  often  brings 

349 


i 


I: 


'i    .  1 


III 
,:3 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

on  a  disease  known  as  "scurvy."  It  is  not  the  same  as 
ship  scurvy,  and  tlie  symptoms  vary  in  different  persons, 
the  more  common  being  a  hardening  of  the  tendons,  es- 
pecially those  under  the  knee,  a  darkening  of  the  skin, 
and  an  apparent  lifelessness  of  the  tissue,  so  that  when 
a  finger  is  pressed  against  the  skin  a  dent  remains  for 
some  time  afterwards.  It  is  rarely  fatal,  though  it  may 
incapacitate  the  victim  for  work  for  a  whole  sf^ason. 
It  yields  readily  to  a  treatment  of  spruce-leaf  tea,  taken 
internally.  Various  specific  causes  are  given,  such  as 
lack  of  fresh  meat  and  vegetables,  improperly  cooked 
food,  exposure  and  vitiated  air,  but  physicians  say  that 
the  real  cause  is  yet  unknown. 

Physicians  did  uncommonly  well.  The  charge  for  a 
visit  in  town  was  never  less  than  |!5,  while  a  visit  to  the 
mines  was  sometimes  as  high  as  $500,  the  charge  being 
regulated  according  to  the  "victim's"  ability  to  pay  ;  and 
the  price  of  drugs  was  proportionately  high.  One  young 
doctor  was  said  to  have  earned  $1200  to  $1500  a  month, 
while  another  who  invested  his  earnings  judiciovijly  in 
mines  was  reputed  to  have  made  $200,000.  The  hospital, 
although  a  sectarian  institution,  was  maintained  by  local 
subscriptions.  Three  ounces  of  gold-dust  {$51)  entitled 
a  person  to  a  ticket  for  treatment  during  one  year, 
and  a  certain  number  of  weeks  in  the  hospital,  with 
board  and  nursing  free.  To  non-subscribers  the  charge 
was  $5  a  day,  and  $5  extra  for  the  doctor's  usually  daily 
visit.  From  its  establishment  in  the  fall  of  1897  up  to 
April  1st,  1898,  the  number  of  deaths  was  twenty-four, 
of  which  seven  or  eight  were  from  typhoid  fever.  The 
hospital  was  a  godsend,  and  many  a  man  came  out  from 
under  the  tender  care  of  the  venerable  Father  Judge  and 
the  little  band  of  Sisters  with  a  broader  view  of  religious 
work  and  a  better  personal  imderstanding  of  what  it 

350 


^^ 


A    DAW  SOX    FUX  I-.RAL 

meant  to  devote  one's  life  to  doinj^  o-ood  lor  his  fcllmv- 
inen. 

Now  and  tlien  we  witnessed  the  sad  si^ht  of  a  funer- 
al—  some  poor  feHow  borne  to  his  last  resting  place 
far  from  his  own  people,  but  never  without  friends.  In 
order  to  make  a  grave,  it  was  necessary  to  burn  the 
frosty  ground  exactly  as  if  for  mining.  A  sight  wit- 
nessed perhaps  no  place  else  in  the  world  was  a  hearse 


V    ^ 


A   FUNERAl,    PROCKSSION    IN    DAWSON 

drawn  by  dogs.  The  rude  coffin  of  spruce  was  [)laced  on 
a  Yukon  sled,  to  which  was  hitched  a  team  of  four  gray 
Malamut  dogs.  The  minister  and  improvised  hearse 
went  ahead,  followed  by  a  procession  of  friends,  to  a 
spot  on  the  hill-side  overlooking  the  Yukon,  where  the 
funeral  service  was  read,  and  then  the  coffin  lowered 
into  its  resting-place,  where  the  body  will  lie  unchanged 
until  the  earth  itself  changes. 

The  aurora  borealis,  or  northern  lights,  of  which  we 
expected  to  see  so  much,  failed  to  show  the  brilliant  con- 

351 


I 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 


n, ,' 


ventional  arc  of  light  represented  in  pictures  of  the 
Arctic  regions.  A  clear  yellow  glow  on  the  horizon,  like 
that  from  the  rising  of  the  sun,  lay  in  the  north,  and  from 


th 


the 


is  at  times  streams  of  light  shot  upward,  often  to  tne 
zenith,  and  took  the  form  of  waving  bands  or  curtains 
of  light,  pink  and  green,  swiftly,  silently  moving  and 
shifting.  Sometimes  the  light  seemed  very  near,  and 
then  it  seemed  that  we  could  hear  a  rustling,  but 
\vhether  it  was  the  rustling  of  the  light  or  the  rushing 
of  the  river  beneath  the  ice  we  could  never  tell,  it  was 
so  subtle  and  illusive ;  and  again  it  seemed  as  if  its  rays 
caught  the  pale-green  light  of  the  moon,  which  shone 
as  bright  as  day  in  the  cloudless  sky. 

The  dry,  crisp  cold  was  no  greater  than  one  could 
stand,  but  from  the  first  of  December  until  the  middle 
of  January  the  cold  and  darkness  combined  to  weigh 
upon  body  and  mind.  Even  with  plenty  of  work  to 
do  the  short,  dull  days  and  interminable  nights  were 
gloomy  and  dispiriting.  After  the  middle  of  January 
the  days  grew  rapidly  longer,  for  the  coming  and  going 
of  the  seasons  are  much  more  rapid  than  nearer  the 
equator.  At  Dawson  the  valley  of  the  river  lay  north 
and  south,  and  the  sun  was  visible  in  the  south  for  sev- 
eral hours  at  the  edge  of  the  distant  hill-top;  but  in  all 
the  deep  valleys  which  lay  in  the  other  direction  the  sun 
was  not  visible  from  November  until  February,  Fifty- 
four  degrees  below  zero,  registered  on  a  private  spirit - 
thermometer  at  the  barracks,  was  said  to  have  been  the 
lowest  ,  but  probably  at  higher  elevati(tns,  the  tempera- 
ture was  considerably  lower  than  that.  Fortunately  the 
extreme  cold  was  accompanied  with  little  or  no  wind, 
but  the  slightest  movement  of  air  cut  like  a  knife.  In 
the  woods  there  was  absolutely  no  air  stirring. 

The  snow  clung  to  the  trees  in  curimisly  formed  masses, 

352 


! 


i 


BEAUTIFUL  EFFECTS  OF  SNOW 

exceedini^  in  size  anything,"  even*  seen  in  the  deep-snow 
regions  of  southern  Canada.     On  the  tops  of  the  moun- 
tains the  most  beautiful  effects  were  observed,  each  twig 
and  tree  being  surrounded  with  white  crystals  of  snow, 
giving  to  the  landscape  the  appearance  of  having  been 
chiselled  from  spotless  marble.     In  February,  under  the 
increasing    breezes, 
the  snow  began  drop- 
ping; in  March  there 
were  moderate  gales. 
The  sky  in  winter  was 
nearly  cloudless,  and 
the  snow  seemed   to 
come    mostly    from 
banks  of    mist    that 
rose  from  air-holes  in 
the  river  and  drifted 
into  the  valleys.    The 
snow-fall  did  not  ex- 
ceed two  or  three  feet. 
It  was  as  light  as  pow- 
der, and  did  not  settle 
to  any  ai)j)reciable  ex- 
tent until  the  sunny  dayr^  of  early  spring.    Snow-shoeing 
was  exceedingly  tiresome,  and  off  the  trail  quite  impos- 
sible with  anything  but  the  largest  Alaska  sht)es  or  with 
the  Norwegian  s^-/s. 

When  travelling  in  cold  weather  it  is  necessary  to 
cover  well  the  hands  and  feet  and  to  guard  the  face. 
The  body  cares  for  itself.  A  heavy  blanket -ccxU  viver 
woollen  underwear  is  amply  warm,  especially  it  provided 
with  a  hood,  but  an  objection  to  wool  is  that  perspiration 
strikes  through  and  freezes,  especially  over  the  back  and 
shoulders.  AVhen  one  enters  a  warm  cabin  this  melts, 
z  353 


A    "  IjKU.L  "    I'ARKA 


k 


m 


•  -m 


p'i 


T  II  E    K  L  ()  X  I)  T  K  E     S  T  A  M  I'  i^:  i)  E 

and  unless  thoroughly  dried  is  apt  to  cause  a  severe 
chill.  Deer-skin  coats,  although  very  "swell,"  are  con- 
sidered too  heavy  when  travelling  fast,  the  miner  pre- 
ferring the  ordinary  drill  parka,  with  fox-tails  around 
the  hood,  and  a  puckering-string  to  draw  it  around  the 
face.  The  principal  danger  is  of  breaking  through  thin 
shell-ice.  Even  in  the  severest  weather  water  from  so- 
called  "soda-springs"  flows  out  of  the  hill-sides  and 
over  the  ice  in  the  creeks,  often  building  up  masses  of 
ice  known  to  the  miners  as  "glaciers."  So  thin  in  some 
places  is  the  ice  that  the  Indians,  when  making  a  new 
trail  on  the  river,  always  carry  a  stick  witli  which  to 
feel  their  way,  testing  the  ice  ahead  of  them. 

Snow-glasses  are  a  part  of  every  Klontlike  outfit,  as 
at  the  approach  of  spring  the  sun  shining  upon  the 
snow  produces  an  inflammation  of  the  eyes  known  as 
"snow-blindness."  The  victims  of  snow-!)lindness  are 
compelled  to  lie  in-doors  often  for  a  week,  suffering  ex- 
cruciating pain.  The  ordinary  snow-glass  is  a  goggle 
of  smoke-colored  glass,  the  sides  being  of  fine  wire  net- 
ting. Another  kind  is  made  of  blue-stained  mica,  with 
a  rim  of  felt.  Both  are  held  on  with  a  rubber  band 
around  the  head.  The  Indians  blacken  their  cheeks 
with  lamp-black  and  grease,  which  modifies  the  intense 
glare.  At  Dawson  not  one  person  in  ten  w'ore  glasses 
or  took  any  other  precautions,  and  I  did  n(.)t  know  of  a 
case  of  snow-blindness.  By  a  curious  paradox  it  is  said 
that  strong  eyes  are  more  liable  to  snow-blindness  than 
weak  ones. 


One  naturally  wonders  how  Women  endure  the  dis- 
comforts of  life  in  the  Yukon.  But  we  who  lived  rough- 
ly were  astonished  to  observe  how  the  hand  of  woman 
could  transform  an  interior,  and  what  an  air  of  comfort 

354, 


A    CRAND    BA  LL 


} 


could  be  j^ivcn,  especially  in  the  houses  of  the  tniders  and 
other  well-to-do  persons  who  could  alFord  proper  furni- 
ture. The  number  of  women  in  camp  was  a  continual 
subject  of  commiMit  ;  and  there  wcv.^  a  few  children. 
Dawson  was,  in  the 
main,  a  city  composed 
of  grown  people  and 
dogs.  Four  years  ago 
there  were  four  white 
women  in  the  Yukon. 
Two  years  later  a  the- 
atrical troupe  increased 
the  number.  This  win- 
ter there  were  probably 
two  hundred,  most  of 
whom  were  the  wives  of 
fortunate  miners,  and 
all  of  whom  were  as  in- 
tent as  the  men  upon 
earning,  or  helping  to 
earn,  a  fortune. 

Nearly  all  the  first 
old-timers  married  Ind- 
ian women,  who  have 
shared  the  good  fort- 
unes of  their  husbands 
in  the  Klondike  strike, 

and  are  treated  with  the  same  respect  that  \v<>idd  1k'  at 
corded  a  white  woman.  At  Pit)neer  Hall,  on  New  Year's 
eve,  the  "  Yukon  Order  of  Pioneers  "gave  a  grand  ball,  at 
which,  it  is  needless  to  say,  "boiled  "  shirts  were  not  Y^' 
rii^iiciir,  but  several  were  in  evidence,  in  which  their  wear- 
ers, more  accustomed  lo  flannels,  looked  extremely  tin- 
comfortable     They  brought  their  Indian  wivrs,  wlio   in 

355 


INDIAN     WiiMAN    IN    lANCV    I'AKKA 


T  H  E    K  L  ()  X  D  I  K  E    S  T  A  M  P  E  D  E 


turn  brought  the  cliildreii,  and  it  made  a  (|uaint  sis^hl, 
the  men,  some  in  fur  par/ens,  others  in  black  broad- 
cloth, and  all  in  moccasins;  the  women  decked  out  intheir 
best  and  newest  "store "clothes,  not  much  behind  the  fash- 
ion cither  ;  the  babies  in  odd  little /'^rrXv?'^",  playingon  the 
floor  under  the  feet  of  the  dancers  ;  and,  as  a  final  touch 
to  the  picture,  here  and  there  a  lost  dog  looking  for  its 
owner.  Tickets  to  this,  the  swell  event  of  the  season,  were 
$12.50,  which  included  an  excellent  supper. 

The  Yukon  Order  of  Pioneers  was  organized  by  "  Jack  " 
McQuesten,  at  Circle  City,  for  the  i)in-pose  of  furthering 
the  interests  of  its  members,  caring  for 
them  when  sick,  burying  them  when 
dead.  No  one  is  eligible  who  came  into 
the  Yukon  since  1895.  It  numbers  sev- 
enty or  eighty  active  members,  and  one 
honorary  member.  Captain  Constantine. 
The  badge  of  the  society  is  of  gold — a 
carpenter's  rule  partly  folded,  the  two 
oRDKRoi'i'ioNEERs  amis  bciiig  crossed  with  a  spray  of  lau- 
rel, with  the  letters  Y.  O.  O.  P.  inside. 
No  news  of  the  outside  world  reached  us  until  Janu- 
ary 4th,  when  Andrew  Flett,  a  Mackenzie  River  half- 
breed,  arrived  from  Little  Salmon  with  a  team  of  four 
dogs  and  mail  for  the  officials,  bringing  the  news,  re- 
ceived with  mingled  joy  and  disgust,  that  he  had  left  at 
that  place  nine  other  teams  loaded  with  public  mail. 
He  had  left  it  behind,  not  daring  to  bring  all  the  dogs  to 
Dawson  until  he  knew  he  could  secure  food.  We  learned 
for  the  first  time  from  the  messenger  of  the  general 
anxiety  about  our  safety,  of  the  action  of  Congress  for 
our  relief,  and  the  despatching  of  a  reindeer  relief  ex- 
pedition. There  was  also  at  Little  vSalmon  half  a  ton  of 
old  mail,  some  of  which  had  passed  Lindeman  before  my 


BADGE  l>K  YIKON 


PAT    (lALVIN 

departure,  and  was  "held  up"  at  Ta^isli  awaitinp;  the 
new  governor,  Major  James  M.  Walsh,  antl  other  olilieers 
of  the  g(wernnient,  who,  however,  started  so  late  that 
they  were  all  frozen  in  near  TJttle  vSahnon. 

As  early  as  Christmas,  private  dog-teams  were  offered 
to  bring  this  mail  into  Dawson,  but  tlie  authorities  de- 
elined,  expeeting  their  own  dogs  to  arrive  soon.  ( )n  I'ei)- 
ruary  26th  every  pound  of  mail  that  forty  dogs  could 
pull  came  in,  and  there  was  great  rejoicing.  Cli[)pings 
of  important  news  (we  did  uol  yet  know  of  the  loss  of  the 
Maine)  were  enclosed  in  letters,  and  these  were  passed 
around  from  hand  to  hand  and  eagerly  read.  After  this 
teams  from  the  coast  arrived  frequently.  Every  re- 
sponsible private  outfit  that  w'ent  out  carried  its  batch  of 
letters  sealed  in  waterproof  tin  boxes.  The  g<jvernment 
charge  was  only  three  cents  a  letter,  the  same  as  in 
other  parts  of  Canada,  but  the  first  government  mail  did 
not  leave  until  March.  More  than  one  precious  parcel 
of  letters  may  have  been  thrown  by  the  way-side  by  these 
private  carriers — indeed,  one  such  parcel  was  found,  and 
the  fellow  was  caught,  but  he  explained  that  he  had  been 
obliged  to  leave  it  and  had  intended  to  go  back  for  it 
in  the  spring.  A  dififerent  sort  of  man  was  Patrick,  or 
"  Pat,"  Galvin,  as  he  is  familiarly  known,  formerly  tin- 
smith at  Circle  City,  but  now  a  man  who  pays  his  bills 
in  golden  eagles  manufactured  from  his  own  Klondike 
gold  by  Uncle  Sam.  Just  before  the  break-up  (Jalvin 
came  in  on  the  run,  and,  hastily  finishing  some  business, 
started  back,  making  Fort  Selkirk,  one  hundred  and 
seventy-five  miles,  in  the  remarkable  time  of  three  and  a 


half  dav 


There  he  left  his  doiis,  and,  with  an  Indian 


guide, continued  on,  carrying  twenty-eight  ])(>undsof  mail. 
The  pac-k  contained,  Ix^sidcs  k  ttcrs  with  (hafts  aggregat- 
ing $40,000,  a  [)arcel,  encased  in  tin,  of  manuscript  and 

357 


1.5 


f  m 


1 


1 

i 


II 


THE    KLONDIKE    vSTAMPEDE 

sketches  for  PIakimck's  Wkkkly,  weighing  nearly  three 
pounds,  which  Galvin  had  undertaken  t(;  carry  for  me  to 
the  coast,  a  service  for  which  he  scorned  a  cent  of  pay. 
The  Indian  deserted  him  after  he  had  tcjld  liim  of  a  short 
cut  that  would  save  much  time.  Galvin  stopped  two  men 
on  their  way  in  and  turned  them  back.  They  lost  their 
way  in  the  cut-off,  and  wandered  for  six  days,  most  of 
tlie  time  without  food.  At  one  time  they  gave  up  all  as 
lost,  and  left  their  names  on  birch-bark  on  the  top  of  a 
mountain,  but,  pushing  on  with  remarkable  fortitude, 
they  at  length  recovered  the  trail.  During  these  si.\ 
days  the  men  Galvin  had  turned  back  would  not  share 
with  him  a  pound  of  the  load  of  mail.  In  due  season  a 
parcel  reached  Franklin  vSquare,  accompanied  by  a  hast- 
ily scrawled  note,  which  those  who  opened  it  perhaps 
little  understood.  Galvin  had  written,  "I  would  not  do 
it  again  for  $25,000,"  and  any  one  who  knows  Galvin 
knows  he  meant  every  word  he  said.  As  an  example  of 
faithfulness  to  trust,  of  pure  bull-dog  grit,  this  experi- 
ence of  Galvin's  has  few  equals. 

The  dreary  expanse  of  snow  between  Dawson  and  the 
coast  saw  trains  of  human  beings  and  dogs  going  out, 
meeting  other  trains  bound  in,  or  living  in  cabins  wher- 
ever they  were  stopped  by  the  ice.  The  police,  with 
stations  at  White  Horse  Rapids,  Lake  Labarge,  Iloota- 
linqua,  Big  Salmon,  Freeman's  Point,  and  Little  Salmon, 
furnished  relief,  except  for  which  many  would  have  gone 
to  their  death  by  the  side  of  the  narrow  white  trail. 

The  more  eager  new-comers  left  the  main  part  of  their 
outfits  in  charge  of  one  of  their  party,  and  pushed  on 
to  Dawson,  wdiere  they  exchanged  provisions,  pound  for 
pound,  with  outgoing  parties  —  an  arrangement  of  the 
greatest  advantage  to  both. 


CHAPTFR    XVII 

Sprinf;  in  tin-  Yukon — Last  |)oi,'-'ruams  from  Outside — Horde  of  New- 
Comers  at  the  Head  of  tlie  River,  Waiting  for  the  Ice  to  Go  Out — 
Failure  of  tlie  Reindeer  Relief  Kxiiedition — Preparing;  for  tlie  "  liooni" 
— The  "  Clean-uj)  "  IJcjjun  —  The  Klondike  lireaks  Loose  —  Terrilie 
Force  of  the  Ice — The  N'ukon  still  Solid — Will  Dawson  he  \Va<hed 
Away? — "The  Ice  is  tloiny  Out  " — "  Chechahkos  !" — L^gs  a  Dollar 
and  a  Half — The  "June  Rise" — Dawson  Uniler  Water 


HE  moment  the  sprinjjf  sun 
gained  a  place  in  the  sky  the 
snow  on  the  southern  hill- 
sides dwindled  away  like  mag- 
ic, turning  the  creek  trails 
into  streams  of  water  which 
grew  in  volume  with  each 
succeeding  day.  The  forests 
seemed  to  burst  into  life  and 
the  air  was  laden  with  the  song  and  twitter  of  birds. 
By  the  middle  of  April  the  snow  was  gone  from  the  flat 
at  Dawson,  and  the  sun,  although  not  so  high  in  the 
heavens,  was  shining  for  as  many  hours  as  in  the  middle 
United  States  on  the  longest  day  of  the  year.  Moccasins 
and  furs  were  laid  away,  and  their  places  were  taken  by 
rubber  hip-boots  and  broad-brimmed  felt  hats.  At  night, 
however,  enough  winter  returned  to  freeze  the  trails  for 
the  dog -teams  hurrying  supplies  and  lumber  to  the 
mines  before  the  final  break-uj). 
The  last  teams  in  from  the  outside  brought  confirm- 

359 


IMAGE  EVALUATION 
TEST  TARGET  (MT-S) 


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If  1^  IM 

<^  ■—    III  2.2 

1  as.  112.0 


1.6 


Photographic 

Sciences 
Corporation 


23  WEST  MAIN  STREET 

WEBSTER,  N.Y.  )4S80 

(716)  872-4503 


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THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 


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ing  news  of  the  magnitude  of  the  Klondike  stampede. 
The  crowd  pouring  over  the  passes  was  such  as  the 
world  had  never  seen  before.  At  Skagway  the  woods 
were  cleared  off,  buildings  were  going  up  "  faster  than 
they  could  get  the  lumber,"  and  the  town  contained 
seven  thousand  people,  and  was  growing  fast.  A  toll- 
road,  known  as  "Brackett's  Road,"  had  been  constructed 
over  White  Pass  for  wagons  and  horse-sleds,  and  freight- 
ing was  reduced  to  15  cents  a  pound  from  Skagway  to 
Bennett.  Where  three  thousand  horses  lay  dead,  a 
stream  of  men,  dogs,  and  horses  were  moving  easily. 
Dyea,  which  in  December  consisted  of  three  white  men's 
houses,  was  a  mile  and  a  half  long  and  contained  from 
five  to  six  thousand  souls.  A  stream  of  human  beings 
dragged  their  hand-sleds  up  the  now  smooth  trail,  and 
over  the  summit  all  day  long  marched  a  thin  black  line 
of  men  with  packs,  locking  step,  so  close  together  that 
they  could  touch.  First  a  whim,  or  endless  cable,  was 
put,  for  drawing  loaded  sleds  to  the  top,  and  later  an 
"aerial  tramway,"  a  steel  cable  elevated  on  posts,  with 
swinging  buckets,  was  operating  between  Sheep  Camp 
and  Crater  Lake,  goods  being  carried  from  Dyea  to 
Lindeman  for  8  cents  a  pound.  The  Canadian  govern- 
ment had  made  good  its  claim  to  the  passes  as  the  inter- 
national boundary  by  establishing  custom  offices  at  both 
summits  and  there  taking  duties  on  American  goods. 
The  mounted  police,  in  fear  of  famine,  had  been  allowing 
no  person  without  credentials  to  cross  the  summit  with- 
out a  thousand  pounds  of  provisions.  Along  the  lakes 
the  new-comers  were  putting  boats  together,  ready  to 
start  for  Dawson  with  the  opening  t)f  the  river  in  May. 

The  effort  of  the  United  States  government,  when 
apparent  confirmation  of  rumors  of  a  serious  shortage 
of  food  was  received  from  Dawson,  to  send  a  relief  expe- 

360 


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REINDEER    RELIEF    EXPEDITION 

dition  by  reindeer,  came  to  a  disastrous  end,  the  deer 
having  reached  no  farther  than  the  coasi  end  of  the  Dal- 
ton  trail,  over  whicli  it  had  been  intended  they  should 
proceed  to  the  relief  of  Dawson  and  Circle  City.  Al- 
though, happily,  the  help  was  not  needed,  it  was  a  mat- 
ter of  keen  regret  to  all  who  had  followed  closely  the 
introduction  of  domesticated  reindeer  into  Alaska  that 
this  the  first  practical  opportunity  to  demonstrate  their 
usefulness  ended  in  disaster;  for  if  reindeer  had  failed, 
there  was  no  means  under  heaven  by  which  help  could 
have  reached  us.  The  domesticated  reindeer  will  no 
doubt  prove  to  be  as  well  adapted  for  the  Yukon  valley 
as  its  near  relative,  the  wild  reindeer  or  caribou,  of  the 
same  region,  or  the  domesticated  herds  of  eastern  Sibe- 
ria. For  upward  of  eight  years  the  government,  through 
Dr.  Sheldon  Jackson,  General  Agent  of  Education  for 
Alaska,  had  endeavored  to  effect  the  introduction  into 
western  Alaska  of  the  domesticated  deer,  which  they  se- 
cured annually  from  the  Siberian  herdsmen,  until,  along 
with  their  natural  increase,  the  herd  numbered  upward 
of  fifteen  hundred  deer,  stationed  at  the  Teller  Reindeer 
Station,  Port  Clarence,  and  at  Golovin  Bay,  Behring 
Sea.  The  main  purpose  of  the  movers  in  this  enterprise 
was  to  furnish  food  and  clothing  to  the  starving  Eski- 
mos, and,  eventually,  means  of  transportation  in  winter 
to  and  from  our  far  northern  stations,  a  service  which 
deer  should  perform  as  well  in  Alaska  as  in  Lapland. 

When  the  news  of  our  perilous  situation  reached  the 
government,  it  happened  that  the  revenue-cutter  Bear 
had  just  departed  from  Port  Townsend,  Washington, 
with  an  expedition,  under  Lieutenant  I).  H.  Jarvis,  for 
the  relief  of  eight  whaling-vessels  imprisoned  in  the  ice 
at  Point  Barrow.  Lieutenant  Jarvis  was  instructed  to 
take  all  the  available  government  deer,  and  he  ultimate- 

363 


■J 

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■■ 

1 

4^,*- 


:f 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

ly  reached  Point  Barrow,  having  successfully  driven  382 
deer  a  distance  of  over  eight  hundred  miles.  Conse- 
quently, there  being  no  government  deer  available.  Con- 
gress, on  the  i8th  of  December,  passed  "An  act  author- 
izing the  Secretary  of  War,  in  his  discretion,  to  purchase 
subsistence  stores,  supplies,  and  materials  for  the  relief 
of  people  who  are  in  the  Yukon  River  country,  to  pro- 
vide means  for  their  transportation  and  distribution," 
and  made  an  appropriation  therefor.     Dr.  Jackson  was 


UNITED     STATES     GOVERNMENT     REINOEER      RELIEF     KXrEDIlTON  —  DEER 

IIAKNESSEI)    ID    SI. EDS 

despatched  to  Norway  to  purchase  deer,  and  on  the  28th 
of  February  reached  New  York  with  539  deer,  also 
sleds  and  harness  complete,  and  114  Lapps  and  Finns 
to  drive  the  deer.  The  deer  reached  Seattle  on  March 
7th,  having  lost  but  one  of  their  number  ;  but  here, 
while  waiting  nine  days  for  transportation,  they  were 
fed  on  grass,  through  the  desire  of  the  officer  having 
them  in  charge  to  save  the  reindeer-moss  that  came 
with  them,  and  several  died.     Finally,  the  herd  reached 

364 


PREPARING    FOR    THE    "ROOM" 


Maine's  Mission,  Pyramid  Harbor,  from  which  point  they 
should  have  been  at  once  driven  to  the  moss-Helds,  a  feu- 
miles  distant ;  but  instructions  regardinjj^  them  sent  to 
the  officer  in  command  of  the  United  States  soldiers  at 
Dyea,  thouj^h  mailed  at  Skagway,  did  not  reach  him, 
four  miles  distant,  until  a  week  later,  so  that  when  the 
order  came  to  move  it  was  too  late ;  they  were  so  weak- 
ened by  unaccustomed  food  that  they  began  to  die  raj)- 
idly,  and  by  the  time  they  reached  abundant  pasturage 
in  the  Chilkat  pass,  only  fifty  miles  distant,  but  183  deer 
remained  alive,  and  the  expedition  was  abandoned.  The 
survivors  were  subsequently  driven  to  Circle  City. 

At  Dawson  buildings  of  every  description  sprang  up 
like  mushrooms  in  a  night,  from  the  black,  recking  bog. 
Many  of  them  were  of  substantial  logs  and  lumber,  but 
the  greater  part,  both  large  and  small,  were  mere  cover- 
ings, intended  to  last  only  through  the  summer. 

First  a  frame  of  rough  scantling  went  up,  then  a  cov- 
ering of  white  or  blue  drilling  hastily  stitched  together 
into  the  form  of  a  tent  and  thrown  over,  with  openings 
for  windows  and  doors  ;  fitted  with  seats  and  tables  for 
restaurants,  with  shelves  and  counters  for  stores,  and 
with  the  appro])riate  furniture  for  gambling-houses  and 
saloons.  Several  buildings  of  dressed  lumber,  intended 
for  use  as  stores,  hotels,  and  theatres,  were  as  handsome 
as  one  would  care  to  see.  The  river-front  was  leased 
by  the  government  officials  to  a  favored  individual  for 
about  $1  a  foot  per  month,  and  re-leased  by  him  to 
builders  at  $8  to  $12  a  foot  per  month;  and  this  was 
solidly  jiacked  with  tent-covered  frames,  excepting  a  few 
hundred  feet  reserved  for  the  landing  of  steamers  and 
at  the  ends  of  two  cross-streets.  Building  lots  were  held 
at  extravagant  prices.  As  high  as  $20,000  was  paid  for 
a  desirable  corner  lot  for  a  saloon,  while  a  two  -  story 

3^>5 


Si  I 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

log  building  in  the  centre  of  town  was  worth  with  the 
lot  anywhere  from  $30,000  to  $40,000.  The  govern- 
ment surveyed  what  public  land  had  not  been  previous- 
ly granted  to  town-site  claimants  into  40  x  60-foot  lots 
for  cabins,  and  assessed  locators  from  $200  to  $500  each, 
prices  which  they  justified  as  being  only  half  the  "mar- 
ket value."  Three  saw-mills,  running  night  and  day, 
were  unable  to  supply  the  demand  for  lumber,  which 
was  worth  at  the  mill  $150  to  $200  per  thousand  feet. 
Men  stood  with  teams  waiting,  taking  the  boards  as 
they  fell  from  the  saw.  Nails  were  so  scarce  that  a  keg 
of  100  pounds  brought  $500  ;  a  single  pound  cost  $6,  and 
$3.50  per  pound  was  paid  for  burned  nails  from  the  ruins 
of  the  "Opera-house."  So  that  a  building  of  the  size 
of  some  of  those  that  went  up  cost  $500  to  probably 
$10,000  for  the  shell  alone.  One  of  the  trading  compa- 
nies had  a  large  stock  of  cotton  drilling,  worth  perhaps 
8  cents  a  yard,  which  it  disposed  of  at  75  cents  a  yard. 

A  wood  -  workiiii;  establishment,  which  worked  all 
winter  turning  out  well  -  made  furniture  and  cabinet- 
work, supplied  most  of  the  fittings  of  saloons  and 
stores. 

The  final  thaw  came  on  so  suddenly  that  I  succeeded 
in  getting  only  one  sled-load  of  stuff  from  the  cabin  to 
town.  On  May  ist  muddy  water  in  Bonanza  Creek 
showed  that  sluicing  had  begun.  On  the  3d  it  came 
over  the  low  bank,  flooding  the  woods  and  rising  three 
inches  on  the  floor  of  the  cabin.  It  is  not  exactly  en- 
joyable having  to  wade  about  the  house  in  rubber  boots, 
fighting  mosquitoes,  trying  to  cook  a  flapjack  or  make 
a  cup  of  tea  over  the  stove,  and  climbing  in  and  out  of  a 
high  bunk  with  boots  on.  At  the  end  of  just  two  days  I 
struck  for  town.  The  Klondike  was  still  frozen  fast  to 
the  bottom,  but  the  river  was  running  bank-full,  to  all 

366 


:!    '1 


THE    KLONDIKE    BREAKS    LOOSIC 

appearances  open.  Two  bridjj^es  over  the  Klondike  liad 
just  been  finished:  one  on  seven  stout  f)i('rs  at  the  mill, 
and  the  other  at  the  mouth  of  the  Klondike,  a  suspension 
foot-bridge  in  two  spans  (one  for  eaeh  channel),  built  of 
boards  and  scantling  suspended  from  an  inch-wire  cable 
over  large  spruce  spars.  A  crowd,  mostly  miners  on 
their  way  up  the  gulch,  and  others  just  Ivafers  (for  man- 
kind in  general  is  as  prone  to  loaf  as  hard  at  $15  a  day 
as  at  $1),  was  gathered  at  the  Dawson  end  of  the  latter. 
The  ground-ice,  loosening  from  the  bottom,  now  began 
to  heave,  and  was  jamming  dangerously  on  the  shoals. 
The  ice  was  already  level  with  the  Hoor  of  the  bridge 
when  some  dynamite  loosened  the  jam  and  the  ice  moved 
out.  Just  then  a  cry  was  raised,  "  The  u))per  bridge  is 
gone!"  and,  looking,  we  saw  some  sticks  of  sawed  timber 
float  by. 

What  had  taken  place  shows  the  power  of  ice.  Only  two 
piers  remained,  and  icebergs  as  large  as  small  cabins  were 
setting  about  in  the  river-bed  and  among  the  stumps  and 
cabins  on  the  flat.  Several  men,  who  were  wringing  out 
clothes  and  drying  portions  of  outfits  in  the  sun,  said  they 
saw  the  ice  jam  above  the  piers  and  begin  to  pile  up,  with 
the  water  behind  it.  Suddenly  it  broke  over  the  brink  and 
started  across  the  flat,  making  for  the  cabins.  The  same 
moment  a  gigantic  floe  in  the  middle  of  the  jam — and 
that  was  all  that  saved  seventy-five  to  one  hundred  cab- 
ins and  twice  that  many  lives — started,  picked  the  britlge 
up  as  if  it  had  been  a  bunch  of  matches,  and  the  rest 
followed  crashing,  bearing  five  spans  before  it ;  and,  thus 
relieved,  the  water  fell  as  quickly  as  it  rose,  leaving  the 
flat  strewn  with  ice,  logs,  and  lumber.  The  ice  crowded 
again  below  into  a  sloiigh  at  the  mouth  of  Bonanza 
Creek,  and  the  cabins  of  the  settlement  were  flooded 
to  the  eaves  for  several  days,  their  occupants,  some  of 

367 


i 


I 


J 

; 

*- 

I 

\ 

I 

''f    . 

THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 


whom  were  sick,  escaping  to  the  roofs,  where  they  re- 
mained until  boats  came  to  their  rescue. 

On  the  6th  of  May  the  Yukon  bejj^an  to  rise  rapidly, 
lifting  the  ice,  which,  however,  remained  fast  in  front  of 
the  town.  Hundreds  of  anxious  men  kept  to  the  streets 
that  night,  believing,  as  the  old-timers  said,  that  if  it 
jammed  as  the  Klondike  had  it  would  sweep  the  town 
away.     The  water  stood  within  two  feet  of  the  top  of 


YUKON  ICE-FI.OES 


.     .  . 

\  3 

1 

;■■( 

i; 

y 

ii 

.li 

.  a-ii 

liil 

i 

the  bank.  Captain  Constantine,  who  knew  what  the 
river  might  do,  walked  along  the  water-front  and  re- 
garded the  situation  with  evident  anxiety.  The  sight 
was  one  to  inspire  respect.  When  a  big  floe,  forty  feet 
across,  struck  the  front  of  the  barrier,  it  half  rose  out 
of  the  water,  then  dived  under,  or  turned  on  edge, 
crunched  into  the  front  with  a  dull  roar,  and  remained 
there.  Now  and  then  an  empty  boat  was  seen  to  strike, 
careen,  and  go  under.  At  four  o'clock  on  the  morning 
of  the  8th  the  cry  was  raised,  "The  ice  is  going  out!" 

368 


FIRST    t  II liCII All KO    ARRIVES 


and  everybody  rushed  out  in  time  to  see  tlr  bridge  of 
ice  crack,  }^roan,  then  slowly  push  toj^ether  and  stop; 
then  slowly,  slowly  the  whole  mass  bej^an  to  move,  and 
in  a  few  minutes  there  was  nothing  but  a  swift  river, 
with  cakes  of  ice  as  big  as  cabins  strewn  along  the 
banks. 

The  okl-timcrs  said  we  should  see  a  cliccJiahko  "on  the 
tail  of  the  last  cake  of  ice,"  implying  thereby  that  the 
old-timers  knew  enough  to  give  ice-jams  a  wide  berth. 
Not  long  after  the  ice  went  out,  the  cry  "  C/iir/ia/ik'o  !" 
was  heard.  All  eyes  were  turned  towards  Klondike 
City,  and  we  could  see  a  boat  just  coming  into  sight, 
with  several  men  in  it.  As  it  drew  nearer  it  i)roved  to 
be  a  large  Yukon  boat  containing  five  men  and  some 
sled-dogs  and  sleds.  As  it  drifted  down  a  crowd  num- 
bering several  hundred  followed  it  about  a  mile,  when 
it  pulled  in-shore.  When  the  crowd  learned  that  they 
were  only  from  Stewart  River,  they  were  disgusted. 
We  had  hardly  got  back  when  two  men  in  a  bright- 
green  new  "  Peterborough  "  slipped  in,  and  as  they 
stepped  ashore  they  were  greeted  with  hearty  hand- 
shakes and  other  signs  of  recognition,  and  then  we  knew 
they  were  not  chccluihkos,  and  that  an  old-timer  had 
broken  the  rule.  A  crowd  immediately  surrounded 
them,  asking  questions.  They  had  left  Bennett  six  days 
before,  rowed  day  and  night,  taking  turns  alternately 
rowing  and  sleeping,  and  sledded  over  Labarge.  Sev- 
eral thousand  j)cople  were  around  the  shores  of  that 
lake,  with  boats  built,  waiting  for  the  ice  to  go  out. 

Presently  came  another  Peterborough,  then  another 
— there  were  three  or  four  canoes  in  now  ;  in  one  was  a 
cJicclialiko.  One  of  the  canoes  brought  a  case  of  fresh 
eggs,  which  were  snatched  up,  at  $i8  a  dozen,  by  the 
miners,  famished  for  something  fresh  and  new.  A  few 
2  A  369 


T  III':    K  L  ()  N  I )  I  K  !•:    S  T  A  M  I»  E  I)  IC 


more  boats  ijot  in,  l)riii}j;iii^  word  that  tlu'  lakr  had 
opened  ii|)  a  narrow  crack,  thronjj;h  whicli  they  had 
worked  at  ^reat  risk  ;  it  liad  closed  alter  tlu  in.  We 
noted  the  eaji^erness  of  the  first  to  ji^el  f!i,an(l  c(tni|»are«l 
it  with  our  own.  How  they  were  straininij;  every  lurve 
and  muscle  to  be  a  day,  an  hour,  ahead  of  ih»«  crowd  I 

The  moment  the  ice  went  out  live  foolish  persons,  of 
whom  I  myself  was  one,  paid  $ioo  for  a  worn-out  poling- 
boat  (new  ones  being  worth  $250  to  !$.?oo  each)  and  start- 
ed for  White  River,  where  a  late-comer  over  the  ice  re- 
ported having  found  a  vein  of  very  rich  (|uart/..  There 
had  been  hope  that  the  "mother  lode,"  from  whiih  the 
Bonanza  and  Eldorado  placers  came  would  eventually 
be  found.  During  the  winter  Captain  Heaiy  set  men  to 
work  tunnelling  in  several  places  in  the  neighborhood 
of  Dawson,  but  without  encouraging  result,  none  of  the 
ore  found  proving  sufficiently  high-grade  to  work.  The 
samples  alleged  to  come  i.om  White  River  showed  ore  of 
immense  richness,  although  suspiciously  like  ore  from 
Cripple  Creek,  Colorado.     Consequently  the   town  was 

ag<>R- 

Five  parties  set  out  in  boats  and  canoes.  Ours  was 
the  first  boat  to  reach  Stewart  River,  making  the  sixty- 
eight  miles  in  seven  days  of  the  hardest  struggle.  Two 
besides  ours  reached  the  ledge,  but  only  by  leaving  their 
boats  and  proceeding  (n-erland,  being  unable  to  face  the 
terrific  force  of  the  river  against  the  tall,  often  perpendic- 
ular cliffs  that  line  the  Yukon  for  miles.  After  ten  days 
of  truly  fearful  exertion,  often  at  the  same  time  poling, 
rowing,  towing,  and  chopping  trees,  great  numbers  of 
which  had  been  undermined  and  fallen  into  the  water, 
we  reached  our  destination,  and  discovered  the  hoax. 
Starting  back,  we  met  the  advance-guard  of  the  new- 
comers, and  learned  that   Labarge  was  clear,     A  few 

370 


Till-:  "J  UNH  Risi-:" 

hours  later,  boriu"  on  tlu*  bosom  of  the  (lood.  or  "June 
rise,"  caused  by  llu-  iiu'lliiijj:  snows  and  jflaiiors  in  the 
mountains,  we  found  Klondike  City  u  i  ! t  water,  tlu; 
moutli  of  the  Klondike  bke  a  mill  -  pom.,  the  suspeii- 
sion-i)rid)j;e  ^one,  and  numbers  of  people,  many  of  whom 
we  reeoj^iii/.cd  as  new-comers,  ^oinp  .-'  ut  in  bouts  v.  here 
\vi'  'id  lately  walked  in  fancied  security., 


KAh  r    Ul     UOUSK    LOGS    (IN    TMl'.    KLONDIKE    RIVKR 


'     ■ 


if.f: 


CHAPTER   XVIII 

Flood  at  Dawson  —  The  Midnifjlit  Sun  —  The  New  Comers  —  A  Vast, 
Strange  Tlirong — Miles  of  Boats — I'lenty  of  Grub — Tlie  Ice-Creani 
Business  —  New-Comers'  Opinion  of  Dawson — Disappointed  Men — 
A  Type  of  Klondiker — Magnitude  of  Preparations  for  Business  at  St. 
Michael — Arrival  of  the  Kirst  Steamer — A  Swell  Dawson  Hotel — 
First  Steamer  from  the  Lakes — Magnitude  of  the  Klondike  Stampede 

"DROBABLY  two  hundred  boats  of  various 
■*■  kinds,  from  Lake  Superior  birch-canoes 
to  scows  with  horses  on  them,  were  tied 
up  at  Klondike  City  and  the  Dawson 
bank  of  the  Klondike,  and  the  hill-side 
was  white  with  tents  of  new-comers  and 
others  who  had  been  driven  out  of  the 
cabins  on  the  low  ground.  The  central  part  of  Dawson 
was  under  from  one  to  five  feet  of  water.  The  bar- 
racks were  cut  off,  and  people  were  going  for  their 
mail  in  boats  and  canoes,  while  the  gold  commissioner 
and  his  staff  were  driven  to  a  tent  on  higher  ground. 
Enterprising  boatmen  were  carrying  passengers  along 
the  main  street,  charging  50  cents  a  head. 

It  was  now  at  midnight  as  bright  as  day.  The  sun 
rose  behind  Moosehide  Mountain,  swung  around  half- 
way to  the  zenith,  and  disappeared  behind  the  mountain 
again  after  twenty  hours  continuous  shining.  From  the 
hill-tops  the  sun  was  clearly  visible  during  the  twenty- 
four  hours.  In  the  tents  it  was  uncomfortably  hot.  ind 
the  glare  was  trying  to  the  eyes  and  nerves.     Not  only 

372 


THE    MIDNIGHT    SUN 

could  one  easily  see  to  read  inside  a  tent  at  midnight, 
but  it  was  light  enough  out-doors  for  a  "snap-shot"  with 
a  good  photographic  lens.  During  mid-day  the  temper- 
ature rose  to  70°  in  the  shade.  The  very  sparrows  and 
snow-birds  in  the  brush  on  the  hill-side  lay  still  by  day 
and  sang  and  hunted  at  night.  No  one  ever  felt  like 
going   to   bed.     It   was  a  considerable   bother,  without 


A  ciir.cii.utKo-s  scow 


Mie  sun 
d  half- 
)i;ntain 
•om  the 

wenty- 
lot.  ^nd 

)t  only 


watch  or  compass,  to  tell  the  time  of  day.  A  man 
would  ask  another,  "What  time  is  it?"  "Ten  o'clock," 
the  answer  might  be.     "  Morning  or  evening  ?" 

A  few  persons  lived  on  the  tops  of  their  cabins,  with 
a  tent  and  stove,  and  a  boat  tied  at  the  corner  of  the 
roof  to  get  ashore  with.  From  my  own  tent,  on  a  steep 
bluiT  overlooking  the  whole  scene,  I  would  see  a  man 
at,  say,  1 1  p.m.,  push  off  from  shore,  pole  over  to  a  cabin, 
clamber  out  onto  the  roof,  take  off  his  shoes,  walk  over  to 

n2> 


'   I 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 


a  pile  of  blankets,  unroll  them,  then  take  off  his  coat, 
place  it  for  a  pillow,  and  turn  in  for  a  night's  sleep — all 
in  broad  daylight. 

The  river  subsided  rapidly,  and  the  new-comers  con- 
tinued to  pour  in.  Each  one  said  that  the  crowd  was 
behind  him.  The  authorities  turned  over  to  them  tem- 
porarily a  portion  of  the  military  reservation.  Their 
tents  whitened  the  hill-sides,  and  whole  acres  were  cov- 
ered so  thickly  that  from  a  little  distance  they  ap- 
peared as  masses  of  white.  At  Klondike  City,  along  the 
Klondike  for  a  mile,  and  down  the  bank  of  the  Yukon 
to  the  far  end  of  town,  among  bowlders  and  rocks, 
wherever  there  was  a  space  of  ground  large  and  dry 
enough,  there  were  tents.  A  morass  in  the  middle  of 
the  town  -  site  was  the  only  ground  not  occupied.  A 
part  of  the  overflow  crossed  the  Yukon.  From  the 
point  of  hill  above  my  tent  I  counted  twenty -eight 
hundred  tents,  including  those  on  scows,  in  each  of 
which  three  to  five  or  more  persons  were  then  living. 

The  boats,  from  the  graceful  Peterborough  canoe  to 
freight-scows  forty  feet  long,  carrying  twenty  tons,  were 
tied  up  side  by  side  along  one  and  three-quarter  miles 
of  water  -  front,  a  solid  phalanx  from  one  to  six  feet 
deep! 

Who  is  there  that  can  describe  the  crowd,  curious, 
listless,  dasicd,  dragging  its  way  witli  slow,  lai;giiig  step 
along  the  main  street?  Can  this  be  the  "rush"  that 
newspapers  are  accustomed  to  describe  as  the  move- 
ment of  gold-seekers?  Have  the  hard,  weary  months  of 
work  on  the  trails  exhausted  their  vitality?  or  is  it  the 
heavy  shoes  that  make  them  drag  their  feet  so  wearily 
along  the  street  ? 

It  is  a  motley  throng — every  degree  of  person  gath- 
ered from  every  corner  of  the  earth,  from  every  State 

374 


eight     •         1 

c 

eh   of 

> 

ing. 

7: 

u)e  to 

C 

,,  were 

R 

miles 

> 

X  feet 

urious, 

ig  step 

i"  that 

move- 

nths  of 

■^  it  the 

wearily 

5 


DESCRIPTION    OF    NEW-COMERS 


of  the  Union,  and  from  every  city  —  weather-beaten, 
sunburned,  with  snow -glasses  over  their  hats,  just  as 
they  came  from  the  passes.  Australians  with  upturn- 
ed sleeves  and  a  swagger ;  young  Englishmen  in  golf- 
stockings  and  tweeds;  would-be  miners  in  Mackinaws 
and  rubber  boots,  or  heavy,  high-laced  shoes ;  Japanese, 
negroes  —  and  women,  too,  everywhere.  It  is  a  vast 
herd ;  they  crowd  the  bdats  and  fill  the  streets,  look- 
ing at  Dawson.  Some  are  disappointed.  "This  is  not  as 
big  as  Skagway,"  they  say.  The  old-timer  (we  are  all 
old-timers  now)  is  lost.  The  mere  recognition  of  a  face 
seen  last  winter  is  now  excuse  for  a  friendly  nod  and  a 
"How-de-do?"  The  crowd  is  good-natured,  elbowing 
and  slowly  tramping  back  and  forth. 

It  was  a  sight  just  to  walk  along  the  water-front  and 
see  the  people,  how  they  lived.  Some  slept  in  tents  on 
their  scows,  one  stumbled  over  others  on  the  ground 
under  robes  or  blankets. 

Outfits  of  all  descriptions  were  placarded  "  for  sale," 
and  these  were  surrounded  by  representatives  of  eat- 
ing-places buying  provisions,  or  old-timers  buying  un- 
derwear and  tobacco.  Tinned  goods,  butter,  milk,  fresh 
potatoes  were  eagerly  asked  for. 

The  first  to  get  in  with  provisions  made  small  fort- 
unes, for  by  good  -  luck  they  brought  the  very  things 
that  would  sell  best.  The  first  case  of  thirty  dozen  eggs 
brought  $300.  Soon  the  market  was  better  supplied, 
and  eggs  fell  to  $150  a  case,  and  in  two  weeks  came 
down  to  $3  a  dozen;  milk,  $1  a  can;  tinned  mutton, 
$2.50  a  pound ;  oranges,  apples,  and  lemons,  $1  each  ; 
potatoes  brought  50  cents  a  pound  ;  a  watermelon,  $25. 
Regular  market-stands  were  ojiened  for  the  sale  of  veg- 
etables of  all  kinds,  and  the  water-front  looked  like  a 
row  of  booths  at  a  fair. 

yii 


\  . 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

Every  conceivable  thing  was  displayed  for  sale — cloth- 
ing, furs,  moccasins,  hats  and  shoes,  groceries,  meat,  jew- 
elry. There  were  hardware  and  thoroughly  equipped 
drug  and  dry-goods  stores.     Here  is  one  of  the  signs  : 

DRUGS    DRUGS 

Rubber  boots,  Shoes,  Etc, 

Bacon,  flour,  rolled  oats,  rice,  sugar,  potatoes, 

onions,  tea  and  coffee,  fruits, 

I       corn  meal,  german  sausage. 

Dogs     Dogs 


In  the  brief  space  of  a  few  days  there  seemed  to  be 
nothing  that  could  not  be  purchased  in  Dawson,  from 
fresh  grapes  to  an  opera-glass,  from  a  safety-pin  to  an 
ic^-cream  freezer. 

A  sack  of  flour  actually  sold  on  the  water-front  for  $3, 
less  than  cost,  the  owners  being  disgusted  and  selling 
out  to  leave  the  country.  There  was  no  fixed  price.  A 
few  men  in  town  could  afford  to  pay  the  high  prices 
asked  at  first  for  everything  ;  but  we  of  the  rank  and 
file,  of  varying  degrees  of  "  bustedness,"  went  without 
until  prices  came  down. 

When  meals  dropped  to  $2.50,  what  a  treat  it  was ! — no 
longer  obliged  to  stand  up  before  a  rough  board,  nor 
to  live  on  "  home-made"  flapjacks,  beans,  and  bacon,  un- 
til, as  one  man  expressed  it,  he  was  "  ashamed  to  look  a 
hog  in  the  face."  Instead,  we  sat  down  at  tables  cov- 
ered with  clean  linen.  What  a  feast,  the  fresh  vege- 
tables and  the  curried  mutton  I  They  have  tried  to 
tell  us  that  when  a  man  left  this, country  he  didn't  feel 
he  had  a  square  meal  without  bacon  and  beans.  The 
man  was  only  joking.  We  could  understand  now  how 
Pat   Reagan  felt  when   describing   an  outfit   which   a 

378 


1^   Ail 


THE    ICE-CREAM    BUSINESS 

Dutchman  lost  in  Five-Fingers  the  year  Pat  came  in. 
"It  was  a  foine  oufit,"  said  Pat.  "  He  had  two  whole 
cases  of  condensed  milk." 

Two  popular  young  ladies  were  set  up  in  the  ice-cream 
business  by  a  certain  young  man  about  town.  A  large 
stock  of  condensed  cream  and  $ioo  worth  of  ice  were 
provided  (ice  was  as  expensive  as  anything  else,  on  ac- 
count of  having  to  be  handled  by  men  at  $i  an  hour). 


;« 


THK    WATER-KRONT 


A  few  days  later  the  young  man  called  around  to  ask 
how  business  was  getting  on.  "  Oh,"  they  replied, 
"we're  doing  just  splendid;  we  have  sold  $45  worth  of 
ice-cream,  but  we'll  have  to  have  a  little  more  ice." 

The  best  restaurant  at  this  time  was  the  "Arcade,"  a 
rough  frame  of  scantling  twenty  feet  wide  and  fifty  feet 
deep  covered  with  blue  drilling,  with  a  door  and  two 
windows  in  front.  At  the  right,  as  one  entered,  was  the 
usual  little  counter  with  the  gold-scales,  behind  which 
sat  the  proprietress,  with  a  few  shelves  behind  her  on 

379 


m 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 


which  were  the  tins  and  stuff  that  constituted  the  stock 
in  trade  for  that  day.  The  back  was  curtained  off  for 
the  kitchen,  and  along  each  wall  in  the  front  were  little 
board  tables  seating  four,  with  stools.  The  waiters  here 
were  attired  in  regulation  short  black  coats,  and  car- 
ried towels  on  their  arms  in  professional  style.  The  bill 
of  fare  was  somewhat  variable.  The  waiter  would  ap- 
proach, throw  his  gaze  at  the  ceiling,  and  call  off:  "  Ham- 
burger, beefsteak  —  no,  no,  we're  out  of  beefsteak,  but 
we've  got  some  nice  sausages.  Will  you  have  some 
sausage  and  a  little  Hamburger  on  the  side?"  The 
waiter  was  so  a  la  mode  that  one  instinctively  felt  for  a 
tip  until  one  remembered  that  it  was  Dawson,  and  that 
a  man  making  %i  a  day  and  board  would  probably  scorn 
anything  less  than  a  nugget. 

As  soon  as  the  new-comers  had  taken  a  look  at  Daw- 
son they  began  to  spread  out  over  the  country  prospect- 
ing, stampeding  new  creeks,  looking  at  the  mines,  or 
hunting  for  "jobs."  In  this  last  particular  they  met 
with  disappointment.  Thousands  of  men  came  in  ex- 
pecting to  find  work  at  wages.  There  was  plenty  to  do 
for  the  man  of  resource,  who  could  make  his  own  job. 
The  camp  was,  as  it  will  be  for  some  time  to  come,  large- 
ly a /r<?.$/>ir/^rj.'' camp. 

Many,  after  a  few  days  or  a  few  weeks,  condemned 
the  country  off-hand,  whereas  zvc  knew  that  six  months 
or  a  year  was  required  to  fully  comprehend  the  "genius  " 
of  Klondike. 

As  an  instance  of  what  mnny  were  expecting,  an  old 
man — I  should  judge  him  to  have  been  sixty  years  old — 
came  in  to  where  I  was  working  on  a  large  ma|)  in  the 
Mining  Exchange,  and  judging  from  that  that  I  might 
have  some  acquaintance  with  the  country,  he  began  to 
ask  me   if  I   knew  of  any  "bars"  in  the  neighborhood 

'  380 


DISAIM'OINTED    MEN 

where  he  couhl  work  out  enoujrh  jrokl  to  get  out  of  the 
country.  He  wanted  to  go  over  to  Indian  River,  of 
which  he  had  apparently  read  something;  but  he  did 
not  know  that  he  was  not  physically  strong  enough  to 
carry  more  provisions  than  would  take  him  there  and 
back,  much  less  stop  and  work.  He  had  not  a  cent  of 
money,  and  only  twenty  pounds  of  grub,  but,  as  he  said 


ex- 
do 
ob. 

"ga- 
ined 
>nths 
lius" 

h  old 
)ld— 
the 
light 
an  to 
•hood 


OUTFITS    FOR    SALE 

he  had  a  shovel,  I  advised  him,  as  he  was  one  of  the  first 
of  the  new-comers,  to  proceed  at  once  to  Eldorado  and 
get  a  job  shovelling-in  at  $1.50  an  hour.  Then,  when  he 
had  a  little  money,  he  might  think  of  prospecting.  That 
man,  or  any  man  fixed  as  he  was,  might  stake  the  richest 
claim  in  Klondike  and  not  be  able  to  get  the  gold  out, 
or  even  to  know  it  was  there.  How  many  there  were 
who  certainly  went  away  cursing  the  country,  cursing 

381 


THE    KLONDIKE    vSTAMPEDE 


those  who  persisted  against  evidence  in  calling  it  a 
"poor  man's  country"! 

Among  the  throng  there  was  none  who  interested  me 
more  than  a  tall  figure  I  used  to  see  from  day  to  day. 
He  wore  a  pair  of  deer-skin  pants  fringed  on  the  outer 
seam,  a  loose  blue-flannel  shirt,  belted  in,  and  a  wide- 
brimmed  gray  hat,  from  beneath  which  locks  as  soft  as 
a  girl's  straggled  to  his  shoulders.  There  was  a  look  al- 
most poetic  in  the  gentle  blue  eyes  of  this  picturesque 
individual.  His  whole  air,  indeed,  suggested,  as  he 
doubtless  intended  it  should,  a  romantic  type  of  "cow- 
boy." T  was  sitting  in  the  tent  of  a  Seattle  mining  bro- 
ker ;  the  day  was  hot  and  sweltering.  This  man,  stroll- 
ing along  the  street  as  we  had  seen  him  for  the  past 
few  days,  approached  the  open  door,  and,  leaning  in  the 
welcome  shade  against  the  door-post,  began  talking  to 
Mr.  Hannon.  The  conversation  proceeded  for  a  while, 
touching  matters  of  general  interest.  At  length,  and 
there  was  a  tone  of  sadness  in  his  voice,  he  looked  square- 
ly in  Mr.  Hannon's  eyes  as  he  said,  "  You  don't  remember 
me?"  "  No,  I  can't  say  that  I  do,"  replied  Mr.  Hannon. 
"Why,  don't  you  know  me?  I'm  the  barber,  across 
from  your  place  in  vSeattle."  And  two  friends,  who  had 
parted  eight  months  before  in  Seattle,  wrung  hands  in 
silence  while  a  tear  trickled  down  the  cheek  of  each. 

But,  seriously,  if  it  were  not  for  persons  like  this,  who  for 
the  past  year  have  cultivated  a  "  frontier  "  air,  there  woiikl 
be  little  in  Dawson  to  suggest  the  frontier  town.  Such 
as  these  simply  amuse  the  old  plainsman,  who  wore  his 
hair  long  twenty  or  thirty  years  ago,  because  it  was  con- 
sidered only  fair  to  offer  the  Indian  an  acceptable  scalp. 

Bewildering  as  was  the  crowd  pouring  in  from  above, 
hardly  less  so  were  the  preparations  for  supplying  the 
Yukon  by  way  of  St.  Michael.     Figures  alone  can  give 

382 


ENORMOUS   BUSINESS  AT  ST.  MICHAEL 


Is  in 

|io  f  or 
oitHl 
Such 
Ire  his 
con- 
icalp. 
ibove, 
|g  the 
give 


an  idea  of  the  inajj^nitude  of  the  l)usiiiess,  for  the  dis[)lay 
was  of  a  different  sort.  Where  last  year  two  ocean  ves- 
sels met  at  St.  Michael  the  five  steamers  that  supplied 
Dawson,  more  than  twenty  ocean  steamers  were  headed 
for  St.  Miehael,  and  forty-seven  river  steamers,  some  of 
twice  the  tonnage  of  the  largest  previously  on  the  river, 
and  equalling  in  equipment  and  passenger  accommoda- 
tions the  best  Ohio  and  Mississijjpi  river  packets,  were 
either  on  the  stocks  at  Seattle  or  in  sections  on  the 
deck  of  steamers  for  putting  together  at  Dutch  Harbor 
and  St.  Miehael,  or  were  already  at  St.  Michael  and  with- 
in the  Yukon,  awaiting  the  breaking-up  of  the  river. 
Never  before  was  such  activity  seen  on  the  West  Coast. 
At  one  ship -yard  (Moran's)  in  Seattle  there  were,  at 
one  time,  fourteen  river  steamers  ordered  by  new  com- 
panies. Every  ocean-going  steam-vessel  not  already  in 
the  Skagway  service,  even  from  the  "  bone  yards "  of 
Seattle  and  San  Francisco,  was  bought  or  chartered  by 
companies  of  every  degree  of  reliability.  Six  large 
steamers  came  around  the  Horn,  five  being  Red  Star 
and  American  transatlantic  liners.  Nor  are  vessels  that 
sailed  from  New  York  during  the  winter  with  passen- 
gers direct  for  St.  Michael  included  in  this  count,  but 
only  the  vessels  of  companies  organized  for  a  perma- 
nent business  in  the  Yukon.  The  two  old  companies 
advertised  that  they  had  more  than  doubled  their  pre- 
vious equipment  of  river  and  ocean  vessels.  Besides, 
there  were  at  St.  Michael  numbers  of  prospecting  par- 
ties, each  with  a  small  steamer  or  motor-launch  bound 
mostly  for  the  headwaters  of  the  Koyukuk  River,  thirty 
of  which  reached  their  destination.  And  if  it  had  been 
any  but  a  "  Klondike  "  year,  the  stampede  to  Kotzebue 
Sound,  via  St.  Michael,  chartering  every  available  steam 
and  sailing  vessel  on  the  Pacific  coast  and  landing  2000 

383  . 


!ll     : 


TIIIC    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 


miners  at  the  scene  of   an  allejjed   discovery  of   jjfold, 
would  have  commanded  iniiversal  attention. 

The  Canadian  Minister  of  tlie  Interior,  the  Honorable 
Clifford  Sifton,  granted  to  a  firm  of  contractors,  Messrs. 
Mackenzie  &  Mann,  provisional  right  to  construct  a  rail- 
road from  the  Stikeen  River  to  Teslin  Lake,  in  return 
for  immense  grants  of  gold-bearing  land  in  the  Klon- 
dike. Surveys  were  made  and  material  delivered  at  the 
terminus  of  the  proposed  road,  and  tickets  were  sold  in 
the  principal  cities  of  Europe  and  the  Ignited  States  for 
through  passage  to  Dawson !  In  all,  some  thousands  of 
unfortunate  dupes  ascended  the  Stikeen  River,  to  find 
no  railroad  in  existence,  and  150  miles  of  horse  trail  on 
which  there  was  insufficient  forage  for  horses.  On  this, 
the  most  practicable  of  the  "all-Canadian"  routes  into 
t.e  Yukon,  a  fleet  of  steamers  were  to  ply  on  the  Stikeen 
River,  and  a  small  steamer,  the  Atigliaii,  was  already 
built  on  Lake  Teslin  to  ply  between  the  lake  and  Daw- 
son. Before  the  agreement  with  Mackenzie  &  Mann 
was  ratified  by  Parliament,  however,  a  committee  of 
miners,  sent  out  from  Dawson  in  the  fall  of  1897  to  pro- 
test against  the  royalty  tax,  discovered  and  pointed  out 
to  Parliament  the  true  inwardness  of  the  proposed  fran- 
chise, the  profits  on  which  had  already  been  figured  out 
as  $34,000,000,  and,  as  a  result  of  the  flood  of  light  they 
let  in  upon  Parliament  concerning  the  Yukon,  the  bill 
was  killed.* 

*  3,750,000  acres  of  mineral  land  in  Klondike  were  to  be  granted 
to  tlie  contractors,  whereas  the  whole  area  about  Dawson  that 
had  been  prospected  contained  only  864,000  acres.  They  were  to 
be  allowed  to  run  their  lines  along  960  miles  of  creeks,  whereas 
Bonanza  and  KUIorado  arc  only  thirty-one  miles  long;  the  land 
was  to  be  held  in  fee  simple,  instead  of  by  annual  lease  ;  and  royal- 
ties on  gold  were  to  be  only  one  per  cent.,  instead  of  ten  per  cent,, 
which  were  required  of  all  others.  In  return  for  which  they  were 
to  build  a  narrow-gauge  railroad,  from  a  terminus  only  twenty-si.x 


m 


i-^^l 


MAIN    SIRKKT,  DAWSON— JULY 


""^ 

.11 

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> 

V                 II 

KKT,  DAWSON— J U I, V,  1895 


i 

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I 
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t 
t 
i 


RAILWAY    OVER    WHITE    PASS 


On  the  15th  of  June  the  first  mile  of  a  narrow-gauge 
railroad  over  White  Pass  was  laid  in  Skagway.  The 
general  name  of  "  White  Pass  and  Yukon  Route "  in- 
cluded three  distinct  charters.  The  Pacific  and  Arctic 
Railway  and  Navigation  Company  operate  to  the  sum- 
mit; the  British  Columbia  Yukon  Railway  Company 
is  to  operate  from  there  across  British  Columbia; 
while  the  British -Yukon  Mining,  Trading,  and  Trans- 
portation Company  will  build  to  Dawson.  By  Novem- 
ber 15,  1899,  the  twenty  miles  to  the  summit  was  opened 
for  traffic ;  the  fare  for  a  passenger  was  $5,  or  25  cents 
a  mile,  making  it  probably  the  most  expensive  railroad 
travel  in  the  world. 

At  Bennett  a  fleet  of  small  steamers,  the  largest  ninety 
feet  in  length,  was  built  or  put  together  for  navigating 
the  river  and  lakes  to  Dawson. 

A  few  months  had  turned  Skagway  into  a  city  with 
broad,  graded  streets  and  sidewalks,  lighted  by  1200  six- 
teen-candle-power  incandescent  lights  and  fifty  street 
arc-lights,  and  with  one  of  the  finest  water  supplies  in 
the  world,  brought  in  pipes  from  a  high  mountain  lake. 
It  had  a  daily  newspaper,  and  claimed  to  be  the  largest 
city  in  Alaska.  It  was  governed  by  a  civil  council  with- 
out tax  -  levying  power,  and  preserved  order  with  one 
United  States  marshal. 

Probably  no  fewer  than  60,000  persons  reached  Seattle 
and  neighboring  cities  prepared  to  bear  down  upon  Daw- 
son.*   The  war  with  Spain  intervened,  and  in  three  weeks 

miles  nearer  Dawson  than  Skagway — ijomilesof  tracks,  useless  for 
seven  months  of  the  year — with  right  tocharge  exorbitant  tolls,  and 
with  a  monopoly  of  railway  ingress  to  the  Yukon  for  five  years.  It 
wasa  grab  of  nearly  everytliing  worth  having  in  the  Yukon  district. 
*  A  writer  in  the  Rez'/eiu  0/ RriU'eius  estimates  that  at  this  date 
not  fewer  than  100,000  persons  had  started  from  dilTerent  parts 
of  the  world  f(ir  Klondike. 

2H  385 


+  1 


U 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMP  E  h  E 

the  Klondike  boom  was  flat.  But  probably  40,000  reached 
the  headwaters  of  the  Yukon.  The  police  at  Tagish  re- 
ported that  up  to  the  i8th  of  June,  7200  boats,  averaging 
about  five  persons  each,  had  passed.  The  number  who 
reached  Dawson  is  impossible  to  determine.  Four  to  five 
thousand  stopped  at  Stewart  to  prospect  that  river,  and 
thousands,  after  remaining  a  few  days  or  weeks  in  Daw- 
son, left  for  the  camps  in  American  territory  or  for  home. 
A  police  census  of  the  population  encamped  on  the  Daw- 
son flat  in  midsummer  made  the  number  17,000  to  18,000. 
Four  to  five  thousand  people  were  in  the  mines,  or  in  a 
radius  of  fifty  miles,  prospecting. 

Besides  those  who  took  the  direct  route  to  Dawson, 
probably  2000  started  in  by  way  of  Edmonton.  Of  those 
.who  tried  the  Peace-Pelly-rivers  route  from  there  (the 
Hudson's  Bay  Company  route  of  forty  years  ago),  not 
one,  so  far  as  is  known,  reached  the  Yukon,  and  the  un- 
fortunate victims  of  their  own  folly  and  the  greed  of 
Edmonton  merchants  met  with  sufferings  untold,  the 
way  being  marked  with  abandoned  outfits,  dead  horses, 
and  dead  and  dying  men.  Those  who  took  the  longer, 
Mackenzie- Porcupine- rivers  route,  fared  not  much  bet- 
ter ;  a  miserable  few  reached  the  Porcupine,  while  a 
number  that  one  could  count  on  the  fingers  of  a  hand 
reached  Dawson  at  the  end  of  summer,  but  only  by  leav- 
ing their  outfits  beyond  McDougall's  Pass.  The  un- 
fortunate ones  who  remained  with  their  outfits  were 
able  to  proceed  either  forward  or  backward  at  best  but  a 
few  miles  a  day.  It  is  perhaps  no  exaggeration  to  say 
that  this  ])itiable  endeavor  to  reach  Klondike  by  an  all- 
Canadian  route  will  cost  the  lives,  directly  and  indirect- 
ly, from  exposure  and  disease,  of  500  persons.  This  is 
the  price  that  the  Canadian  government  pays  for  an 
ull-Canadian  route,  and  for  the  development  of  the  sup- 

386 


\ 


FIRST   STEAxMER  FROM   ST.  MICHAEL 


posed  resources  of  the  Mackenzie  River  valley.  With  a 
full  knowledge  of  the  situation,  obtained  through  its  own 
surveyors,  it  should  have  sounded  a  note  of  warning,  in- 
stead of  giving  it  public  approval,  as  it  did  by  official 
maps  and  reports. 

Nearly  two  thousand  miners  ascended  the  Copper 
River,  led  by  reports  of  gold  and  copper  on  the  head- 
waters of  this  dangerous  and  difficult  river.  Practically 
nothing  was  accomplished,  and  many  lost  their  lives 
crossing  the  treacherous  Valdez  Glacier.  By  this  river, 
however,  will  run,  sometime  in  the  near  future,  an  all- 
American  railway  to  the  gold-fields  of  the  Yukon,  strik- 
ing that  river  probably  at  Eagle  City. 

The  Yukon  had  been  open  a  month  lacking  a  few  hours 
and  there  was  no  steamer  yet  from  below.  Speculation 
as  to  which  would  arrive  first  favored  the  Bella  and 
the  IVcare,  which  had  but  to  go  from  Circle  City  to  Fort 
Yukon  to  load.  At  four  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  the 
8th  of  June  the  cry  "  Steamboat !"  was  raised  for  the 
fiftieth  time  and  passed  along  the  street,  and  as  usual 
all  hands  rushed  to  the  water-front  and  looked.  A  tiny 
speck  and  smoke  could  be  faintly  seen  two  miles  below; 
odds  favored  its  being  the  Bella,  from  its  having  but 
one  smoke-stack,  whereas  the  Weare  has  two.  The  ar- 
rival of  the  first  steamer  in  the  spring  at  the  starved- 
out  camps  has  been  always  hailed  with  the  same  de- 
light as  would  a  column  coming  to  the  relief  of  a  belea- 
guered garrison.  It  was  an  event  in  which  not  only 
every  miner  was  expected  to  turn  out  and  take  part  by 
waving  his  hat  and  cheering,  but  as  the  deep  whistle  of 
the  incoming  boat  was  blown  every  Malamut  dog  lifted 
its  voice  in  a  doleful  wail.  This  wail  began,  we  were 
told,  at  the  first  blast  of  the  whistle,  and  the  singular 
thing  is  that  the  leader  struck  the  exact  pitch,  high  or 

387 


■  i 


f 

'ill 

i 


\li 


il 


!i! 


V 


THE   kLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 


low,  of  the  steamboat.  Then  in  waves  the  moan  arose, 
breaking  out  in  renewed  and  louder  howls,  each  suc- 
ceeding wave  louder  than  the  former,  until  a  volume  of 
dissonance  had  risen  over  the  v/hole  camp,  from  a  thou- 
sand dogs'  throats,  that  drowned  the  very  whistle,  and 
was  prolonged  for  several  minutes  afterwards.  We  had 
heard  upon  previous  occasions  this  dismal  concert,  gen- 
erally at  the  time  one  wanted  to  sleep,  ar  ^  made  doubly 
irritating  by  the  deep  barkings  of  hundreds  of  big  "  out- 
side" dogs,  who,  unlike  their  "inside "relatives, did  not, 
when  once  aroused,  know  when  to  quit. 

Now,  however,  the  cravings  and  yearnings  of  the  stom- 
ach having  been  appeased  by  the  abundance  brought  in 
from  up  river,  there  was  but  little  excitement  except 
among  the  saloon-keepers,  who  were,  all  but  one,  out  of 
whiskey  ;  while  the  dogs,  being  used  to  the  daily  blasts 
of  several  saw-mills,  hardly  so  much  as  pricked  up  their 
ears.  When  the  steamer  drew  into  the  wharf  she  proved 
to  be  the  May  West,  a  stranded  boat  that  wintered  near 
the  Tanana  River.  She  reported  the  Wcare  and  the 
Bella  high  and  dry  on  the  bank  at  Circle  City,  where  the 
ice  had  shoved  them.  Another  stranded  boat,  the  Seattle 
No.  /,  came  in  soon  after,  followed  by  the  Alaska  Com- 
mercial Company's  ho^t  Victoria  ;  and  on  the  30th  the 
Afericin,  with  the  ill-fated  Eliza  Anderson  party,  arrived 
at  their  destination  after  just  one  year  of  misfortune  and 
hardships.  Finally  the  Bella  and  the  Wearc  arrived,  but 
not  a  word  from  St.  Michael  until  the  arrival  of  the 
Ilcaly  on  the  8th  of  July.  After  that  it  occupied  the 
staff  of  two  newspapers  to  keep  track  of  the  doings  on 
the  water-front.  The  two  old  companies  were  clearly 
unmatched  as  to  equipment,  but  there  were  at  least  six 
or  seven  nesv  ones  firmly  established  on  the  river,  with 
warehouses  at  Dawson  and  other  points,  and  a  large  fleet 

388 


I 


HI  I 


(    OF 


a'  PANORAMIC   VIFW    OF    HAWSOX    TAKEN    FROM    THF    MOI'Tfl 


<l 


FROM    THr    MOrXH    f)r   THE    KI-ONniKR    RIVF.R.     Scmmir.  189S 


FIRST   STEAMER   FROM   THE    LAKES 

of  excellent  steamboats.  One  of  the  stronj^cst  of  the 
new  companies,  the  Empire  Line  (a  connection  of  the 
American  and  Red  Star  transatlantic  lines),  was  crippled 
by  the  withdrawal  of  their  ocean  vessels  as  government 
transports  to  the  Philippines  ;  while  a  number  of  river 
steamers,  estimated  by  one  authority  at  twenty,  belonji^- 
ing  to  this  and  other  companies,  were  lost  or  delayed  on 
the  ocean  voyage  from  Seattle  and  from  Dutch  Harbor, 
so  that  their  passengers,  who  had  paid  for  transportation 
to  Dawson,  were  put  to  much  delay  and  trouble  at  vSt. 
Michael.  Their  managets  for  the  most  part  were  able 
to  purchase  steamers  outright  after  the  first  trip  up,  or 
else  their  own  arrived  in  time  to  start  them  for  Dawson 
before  navigation  closed. 

Notwithstanding  these  delays,  by  September  ist  (ac- 
cording to  the  figures  given  at  the  customs  office  at 
Dawson)  fifty-six  steamboats  delivered  cargoes  of  freight 
and  passengers.  The  amount  of  provisions  landed  was 
7540  tons,  of  which  about  half  was  brought  up  by  the 
two  old  companies,  the  tonnage  of  the  Alaska  Comnicr- 
'"ial  Company  being  the  largest  on  the  river.  The  North 
American  Transportation  and  Trading  Company,  in  ad- 
dition to  their  own  boats,  chartered  a  number  of  steamers, 
or  bought  them  outright,  including  their  cargoes.  By 
the  date  above  mentioned  nearly  twenty  steamers  were 
on  their  way  from  St.  Michael,  most  of  which  reached 
Dawson. 

On  the  14th  of  June  a  tiny  whistle  was  heard  in  the 
river  above  town,  and  a  diminutive  steamer  came  puffing 
down  to  the  wharf.  She  was  35  feet  long  and  8  feet 
wide,  the  BcUingliain  by  name,  and  came  under  her  own 
steam  all  the  way  from  Bennett,  successfully  running 
both  the  Canyon  and  White  Horse  rapids.  She  at- 
tracted much  attention  as  being  the  first  steamer  to 

389 


M 


t 


\\ 

r 

l 

! 

! 

)  1 

'  i 

\ 

'\ 

1 

if 


Till-:   K  L( )  N  I)  I  K  E    S  T  A  U  V  E  I)  E 


.irrivc  from  up  river.  It  was  jj;cncrally  supposed  that 
slie  was  tlie  first  steanu'r  that  ever  inaile  the  trip.  Rut 
in  the  s|)ring  of  1895  a  small  propeller  named  the  Witch- 
llar^cl,  27  feet  \o\\<g,  was  hoisted  over  Chilkoot  by  Frank 
Atkins  and  E.  L.  Hushnell,  of  Portland,  Orejjfon,  shot  the 
rapids,  and  reached  Fort  Cudahy,  where  the  hull  now 
lies. 

Within  the  next  few  days  eight  more  steamers  reached 
Dawson  from  the  lakes.  Two  others,  the  Kalaiiia:;oo 
and  \.\\v:  Josip/i  C7()ssc/f,w(iVo  wrecked. one  on  Thirty-Mile 
River,  the  other  in  the  Canyon.  The  Upper  Yukon  had 
never  been  previously  ascended  by  a  steamer  above  Fort 
vSelkirk,  and  the  experiment  of  transportation  out  that 
way  was  watched  with  interest.  On  the  23d  of  June  the 
Victoria  departed  for  Rink  Rapids,  where  350  horses  were 
waiting  to  carry  i)assengers  out  over  the  Dalton  trail. 
The  fare  to  Pyramid  Harbor  was  $250,  which  entitled 
each  passenger  to  board,  one  saddle-horse,  and  two  pairs 
of  blankets  as  baggage.  The  steamer  also  carried  Cana- 
dian mail  and  light  expr'.is.  The  experiment  was  not 
repeated,  as  by  the  tin-.::  '/ne  Victoria  returned  to  Dawson 
it  had  been  demo'nstiuLed  that  a  steamer  with  the  aid  of 
a  windlass  could  ascend  Five-Finger  Rapids,  and,  by  con- 
necting with  small  steamers  above  the  Canyon,  establish 
an  easier  and  quicker  route.  The  I'lora  and  the  Nora 
(each  80x16  feet),  of  the  Bennett  Lake  and  Klondike 
Navigation  Company,  made  connection  at  White  Horse 
with  their  steamer  Ora.  The  fare  from  Dawson  to  Ben- 
nett was  $175,  and  from  Bennett  to  Dawson  $75,  with 
board,  but  passengers  were  required  to  furnish  their  own 
bedding.  The  time  was  five  to  six  days  up  to  White 
Horse  ;  to  Bennett,  seven.  The  Willie  Irving  (90  feet), 
the  Goddard  {\o  feet)  and  the  Anglian  (Canadian  Devel- 
opment Company)  carried  passengers  to  W^hite  Horse. 

390 


' 


STEAMBOAT    FARES 

The  journey  out  to  Seattle  was  made  in  thirteen  days, 
while,  i)y  a  series  of  fortuitous  connections,  the  trip 
from  New  York  to  Dawson  was  made  by  one  Bartlett, 
a  packer,  in  thirteen  and  a  half  days,  the  schedule  being 
as  follows:  New  York  to  Seattle,  five  days;  Seattle  to 
Skagway,  three  and  a  half  days  ;  Skagway  to  Bennett, 
one  d.'iy  ;  Bennett  to  Dawson,  four  days.     About   1500 


( 


IlRrARTHRE   OF   STEAMKK   FOR    ST.   MTrilAKI, 


persons  went  out  this  way.  As  soon  as  the  up-river 
route  was  proven  a  success,  several  steamers  from  vSt. 
Michael  were  placed  in  the  service.  The  fare  remained 
about  the  same  until  September  14th,  when  the  Clara 
made  a  rate  of  $95  to  Bennett,  meals  $1  eacli  and  berths 
free. 

The  May  West,  the  first  steamer  to  start  for  below, 
left  on  June  i8th,with  68  passenger.-^  at  $100  each,  to  St. 

39' 


I  ill 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 


r;  )' 


Michael  only.  To  meet  the  expected  rush  for  passage 
on  first  steamers  out,  the  North  American  Transpor- 
tation and  Trading  Company  made  a  rate  of  $300  to 
Seattle  (an  increase  of  $125  over  last  year),  and  passen- 
gers were  required  to  send  with  them,  by  express,  at 
least  $1000  in  gold-dust.  Their  steamer  Hamilton  left 
on  the  23d  of  June  with  178  passengers,  and  the  Wcarc\ 
on  the  24th,  with  about  40  passengers  and  $1,500,000  in 
gold-dust.  The  Alaska  Commercial  Company  charged 
for  their  first  trip  $250  for  first-class,  and  $200  for  sec- 
ond (according  to  accommodations  on  the  ocean  vessel) ; 
and  on  the  28th  the  Bella  left  with  150  passengers  and 
$r,ooo,ooo  in  gold.  The  Seattle  No.  i  cut  to  $150  to 
Seattle,  and  left  on  the  30th  with  146  passengers.  The 
North  American  Transportation  and  Trading  Company 
made  a  $100  second-class  rate  on  100  passengers  ;  but 
the  cost  of  a  ticket  to  Seattle  remained  during  the  sea- 
son at  about  $200  on  the  best  boats.  Passage  included 
meals  and  berth  in  state-room  on  both  river  and  ocean 
steamer.  The  record  time  from  St.  Michael  to  Dawson 
was  twelve  and  a  half  days,  held  by  the  North  American 
Transportation  and  Trading  Company's  ho;xt  John  Ciid- 
r?//j,  her  round  trip  consuming  nineteen  and  a  half  days. 
Upon  the  arrival  of  steamers  from  St,  Michael,  food 
and  supplies  of  all  kinds  were  more  plentiful,  but 
when  lists  were  issued  by  the  companies  prices  were 
somewhat  advanced,  flour  being  $8  per  sack.  Several 
new  restaurants  were  opened,  some  of  which  would  have 
been  a  credit  to  a  city  in  civilization,  both  in  the  variety 
of  food  offered  and  in  the  manner  of  its  service.  The 
"  Fairview  Hotel,"  a  three-story  frame  building,  opened 
by  Alec  McDonald  and  Miss  Mulrooney,  was  the  hand- 
somest building  in  town.  It  was  intended,  when  dark- 
ness and  cold  made  it  necessary,  several  months  later, 

392 


A    "SWELL"    HOTEL 

to  light  it  by  electricity  and  heat  it  with  hot  air.  Al- 
though the  inevitable  bar  occupied  the  front,  the  Fair- 
view  could  lay  claim  to  being  a  respectable  hotel,  as  there 
was  a  side  entrance  for  ladiv  s,  who  might  not  like  to 
pass  through  the  bar-room,  and  it  possessed  a  bath- 
room. One  of  the  best  chefs  was  employed,  and  meals 
were  served  on  linen  -  covered  tables,  with  silver  and 
china.  The  price  of  a  meal — considered  by  some  the 
best  in  Dawson  —  was  $2.  Board,  with  a  10  x  12-foot 
room,  was  $125  to  $250  a  month,  according  to  location, 
and  for  transients  $6.50  a  day.  Board  without  room 
was  at  first  $25  a  week,  but  was  afterwards  raised  to  $35 
a  week. 

The  "  Regina  Cafe,"  alongside  the  North  American 
Transportation  and  Trading  Company's  warehouse  gave, 
in  my  estimation,  the  best  meal  in  town.  It  was  in  charge 
of  one  of  the  best  San  Francisco  chefs.  The  linen  was 
white  and  neat,  there  were  arm-chairs  of  oak,  and  the 
service  was  of  china  and  silver,  such  as  one  would  find 
in  a  fairly  well-to-do  household  at  home.  Here,  besides 
eveiy  coni.oivable  variety  of  food  that  is  canned,  one 
couh^  M-der  an  oyster-pattie  or  a  mayonnaise  dressing  ! 
The  price  of  dinner  was  $2.50;  breakfast,  $1.50;  oraticket 
entitling  one  to  twenty-one  meals  could  be  purchased 
for  $30.  Cigars  and  liquors  here  were  only  25  cents, 
although  elsewhere  the  price  was  50  C(  ts.  At  all  the 
other  restaurants  the  price  of  meals  dropped  first  from 
$2.50  to  $2,  then  to  $1.50,  which  remained  about  the 
average  price  for  a  "  square  "  ineal,  allliough  a  "Jap"  sold 
a  pretty  good  "staver-off  "  for  %\  ai  a  lunch-counter. 


i 


ii 


i\ 


\l  u 


M 


CHAPTER  XIX 

Hundreds  of  Miles  of  Claims — Wild  Stampedes — (jold  Under  the  Vnkoi 
— Gold  on  the  Hill-Tops — Fickleness  of  Fortune — The  "Clean-up" 
Begun — Bonanza  Creek  in  Summer — A  Clean-up  on  No.  13  Fldoraclo — 
High  Pans  of  Gold — Richest  fjround  in  Klondike — Newcomers'  Good- 
Fortune — French  and  Gold  Hills — Total  Output-  Bringing  Down  the 
Gold — Values  of  Klondike  Gold — Banks — Unique  Bank-Check — Im- 
provements in  Methods  of  Mining — "  King  of  the  Klondike" 


M  PORT  ANT  discoveries  of  gold  fol- 
lowed those  on  Bonanza,  Hunker,  and 
Bear  creeks.  In  June,  1897,  two  men 
reported  gold  on  Dominion  Creek,  a 
large  tributary  of  Indian  River  hav- 
ing its  source  opposite  Hunker  Creek. 
Both  men  claimed  separate  discovery, 
and  the  Gold  Commissioner,  being 
unable  to  decide  who  had  the  prior 
right  to  discovery,  allowed  two  dis- 
coveries, which  subsequently  proved 
to  be  five  miles  apart,  and  are  known  resi)ectively  as 
"  Upper  "  and  "  Lower  "  Discoveries.  The  prospects  were 
excellent,  but  no  work  of  consequence  was  done  until 
winter.  About  Christinas  rei)orts  of  half-ounce  nuggets 
being  found  resulted  in  a  stampede,  and  everything  on 
the  main  creek,  which  was  larger  than  Bonanza,  was 
staked,  and  staking  continued  on  the  .iam':'"ous  tribu- 
taries until,  in  July,  1898,  there  were  two  latutiied  and 
seventy-five  500-foot  claims  on  the    luiiu  creek,  which, 

394 


MORE    RICH    DISCOVERIES 

,  added  to  thirty  or  forty  tributaries,  reached  the  extraor- 
dinary length  of  140  to  150  miles  of  staked  claims.  Be- 
tween Discoveries  the  ground  proved  very  rich,  and 
single  claims  were  purchased  by  Eldorado  owners  for  as 
high  as  $40,000. 

In  June,  1897,  four  men,  two  of  whom  were  named 
Whitmore  and  Hunter,  made  an  important  discovery 
about  five  or  si.x  miles  from  the  head  of  another  large 
creek  lying  between  Dominion  and  Quartz  Creek  and 
heading  directly  oppositvi  one  fork  of  Gold  Bottom.  The 
creek,  which  was  called  Sulphur  Creek,  was  staked  by 
successive  waves  of  stampeders.  During  the  winter  about 
a  dozen  holes  were  put  down  at  intervals  over  nine  miles 
of  creek,  but  nearly  every  shaft  disclosed  rich  pay  and 
demonstrated  the  creek  to  be  comparable  in  richness 
to  Bonanza  Creek.  In  July,  1898,  over  thirty  miles  of 
creek  and  tributaries  were  staked  in  500-foot  claims, 
and  those  in  the  best  locations  were  selling  for  from 
$30,000  to  $40,000. 

Quartz  Creek,  although  its  situation  and  history  should 
have  drawn  the  attention  of  stampeders  to  it  earlier, 
was  overlooked  until  September  and  October,  1897, 
when  a  thousand  men  went  over  the  head  of  Eldorado 
staking  in  succession  everything  in  sight.  In  July,  1898, 
about  thirty-five  miles  of  creeks  and  tributaries  were 
staked  in  500-foot  claims.  "Eureka"  Creek,  with  about 
thirteen  miles  of  claims  and  good  prospects  ;  "  Nine- 
mile,"  "Ophir,"  "Big,"  "Wolf,"  and  "Gold  Run"  were 
located  in  the  Indian  River  district,  the  last-named 
creek,  with  twelve  or  fifteen  miles  of  claims,  "  [)rov- 
ing  up"  rich.  On  Bonanza  everything  in  sight  was 
staked,  even  to  the  tops  of  the  gulches,  until  there  were 
one  hundred  and  eleven  claims  below  and  one  hun- 
dred  and    nineteen    above   Discovery,   and    over    forty 

395 


I 


'  1  ' 

n 


1,1 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

"pups,"  or  tributaries  (including  Eldorado),  with  a  total 
length  of  about  eighty-five  miles  of  claims. 

Hun  e''  Creek  was  located  for  eighty-one  claims  be- 
low anc.  bove  Discovery,  with  eighteen  or  twenty 
"  pups,"  in  iing  Gold  Bottom,  footing  up  about  sixty 
miles  of  claims.  Bear  Creek,  a  very  rich  creek,  but  only 
five  or  six  miles  long,  was  all  located.  "All  Gold,"  with 
about  eighty-five  500-foot  claims,  and  more  on  tributa- 
ries, was  located,  and  developments  gave  claims  a  mar- 
ket value  of  $5000  for  half-interests.  "Too  Much  Gold," 
with  eight  miles  of  500-foot  claims,  and  "  Leotta,"  with 
five  miles  of  200-foot  claims,  were  also  located.  These 
are  all  tributaries  of  Klondike.  Discoveries  were  re- 
ported on  creeks  entering  the  Yukon  near  Dawson,  but 
it  apparently  did  not  matter  to  the  stampeders  whether 
there  was  gold  in  them  or  not.  They  spent  much  of 
their  time  about  the  saloons  looking  for  "  tips "  from 
more  energetic  ictual  prospectors,  and  some  by  the  end 
of  winter,  particularly  those  who  purchased  information 
of  unrecorded  claims  from  the  Gold  Commissioner's 
Office,  possessed  from  forty  to  two  hundred  claims  and 
interests  each.  By  the  ist  of  July,  1898,  between  nine 
thousand  and  ten  thousand  placer -mining  claims  had 
been  recorded. 

Every  one  of  this  number  was  believed  to  have  great 
value,  and  so  inflamed  did  the  imaginations  of  the 
owners  become  that  claims  on  creeks  in  which  not  a 
pick  had  been  stuck  were  valued  at  thousands  of  dol- 
lars. During  the  winter  large  numbers  of  these  claims 
were  offered  for  sale  outside,  in  the  belief  that  the  pop- 
ular mind  was  so  inflamed  that  anything  to  which  the 
name  "  Klondike  "  was  attached  would  sell.  From  the 
old-timers'  point  of  view  the  camp  was  spoiled.  One 
of  them  expressed  the  prevailing  feeling  when  he  said, 

396 


wmmm. 


' ' 


WILD    STAMPEDES 

"  Prospecting's  done  away  with.  All  the  prospecting 
tools  a  man  needs  now  is  an  axe  and  a  lead-pencil." 

Nothing  could  exceed  the  excitement  of  some  of  the 
stampedes  that  took  place  during  the  winter.  An  old 
man  living  in  a  cabin  on  the  Yukon  above  Dawson  re- 
ported at  the  recorder's  office  that  he  had  found  gold 
on  "Rosebud"  Creek  about  fifty  miles  above  Dawson. 
The  news  got  around  to  the  rest  of  the  camp,  and  all 
who  could  do  so  started.  All  one  night,  by  match  and 
candle  light,  they  measured  and  staked.  It  turned  out 
that  no  gold  whatever  had  been  found  on  the  creek. 
On  February  14th  "Swede"  Creek,  six  miles  from  town, 
was  similarly  stampeded.  Two  Swedes  who  had  been 
prospecting  there  came  down  to  record,  and  let  out  the 
news.  It  was  two  o'clock  in  the  morning,  and  a  bright 
moon  was  shining,  and  a  stream  of  people,  numbering 
over  three  hundred,  marched  up  there  and  staked  all 
that  day  and  into  the  night.  Five  men  were  badly 
frozen,  two  having  to  suffer  partial  amputation  of  both 
feet.  It  was,  indeed,  the  wonder  of  all  who  saw  the 
cliccJiaJikos  starting  out  in  the  dead  of  winter,  often 
dressed  only  in  house  clothes,  some  wearing  even  shoes, 
that  more  were  not  frozen,  but  it  seemed,  as  has  been 
truly  said,  that  "Providence  was  with  the  c/urha/iko." 

In  April  a  sensational  discovery  was  reported  by 
two  Swedes  cutting  wood  on  an  island  in  the  Yukon 
opposite  Ensley  Creek,  eighteen  miles  from  Dawson. 
During  the  winter  they  sank  a  shaft  to  a  depth  of  thirty- 
eight  feet  and  found  gold  on  bed-rock.  A  mining  in- 
spector went  up  from  Dawson  and  "proved"  the  dis- 
covery, obtaining,  it  is  said,  single  pans  as  high  as  $8. 
The  island  was  located  in  250 -foot  claims  and  named 
"Monte  Cristo."  Other  islands  below  were  immediately 
staked  and  holes  put  down,  but  the  rise  of  water  in  the 

397 


;M 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 


river  flooded  their  holes  and  stopped  work.  During  the 
next  summer  the  original  discoverers  of  Monte  Cristo 
panned  out  $300  on  their  dump,  and  sank  another  hole 
thirty-four  feet  and  took  out  $200.  At  the  same  time 
several  parties  worked  on  a  flat  at  the  side  of  the  river, 
sank  eighteen  holes,  and  then  came  down  to  record, 
whereupon  there  was  another  stampede,  one  hundred 
and  eighty  men  going  up  in  one  day.  Soon  after  the 
"Monte  Cristo"  discovery  two  holes  were  put  down  in 
the  flat  at  Dawson.  One  night  after  dark  the  town- 
site  was  staked  off,  but  the  parties  were  not  allowed 
to  record. 

The  discovery  of  gold  in  these  locations  was  startling, 
but  not  more  so  than  the  finding  of  gold  on  the  "hill- 
tops." Shortly  after  Carmack's  discovery  on  Bonanza 
Creek,  H.  A.  Ferguson  found  gold  higher  up  the  hill, 
above  Carmack's  claim,  but  no  one  thought  seriously  of 
hill-side  gold  until  July,  1897,  almost  a  year  later,  when 
Albert  Lancaster,  a  California  miner,  climbed  up  the 
west  side  of  Eldorado,  off  No.  2,  and  began  digging.  He 
was  laughed  at  by  the  miners,  but  he  worked  all  v,  in- 
ter, in  plain  sight  of  the  busiest  part  of  the  mines.  He 
recorded  his  claim,  a  plot  100  x  100  feet,  on  August  4, 
1897 — the  first  "bench"  or  hill-side  claim  recorded  in 
the  Klondike.  Soon  after  Lancaster's  discovery,  one 
William  Diedrick,  better  known  as  "Caribou"  Billy, 
made  a  similar  discovery  at  the  junction  of  Skookum 
Gulch  and  Bonanza  Creek;  and  about  the  same  time  a 
man  named  Peterson  made  a  discovery  on  the  opposite 
side  of  the  same  gulch.  Peterson  dug  a  few  feet  into 
the  hill -side  and  took  out  $6000.  Immediately  after 
these  discoveries  the  ground  in  their  neighborhood  was 
staked,  not  by  the  old-timers  in  the  Bonanza  Creek,  as 
one  would  think,  but  by  new-comers  and  hangers-on 

398 


DISCOVERY    OF    "BENCH"    MINES 

from  town.  Holes  were  sunk  near  Lancaster,  and  a 
nugget  was  found  weighing  over  a  pound,  and  another 
worth  $550  at  the  mouth  of  Skookum.  Still  the  miners, 
for  a  reason  hard  to  understand,  could  not  realize  that 
vast  riches  lay  in  plain  sight  along  the  hill -side,  nor 
could  they  understand  the  theory  of  an  old  stream-bed, 
from  which  all  the  gold  in  the  creek-bed  perhaps  orig- 
inally came.      Caribou    Billy,  however,  seems   to  have 


"bknch"  or  iiill-su)K  claims,  kre.nch  hill,  in  august,  1898 


understood  this,  for  he  kept  examining  the  sides  of  Eldo- 
rado, and  on  the  i6th  of  March,  with  Joe  Staley,  a  new- 
comer from  Dayton,  Ohio,  began  digging  on  the  hill-side 
on  the  west  side,  off  No.  16,  at  the  mouth  of  French  Gulch. 
Joe  Staley,  with  his  brother  Ben,  had  left  home  before  the 
Klondike  excitement,  attracted  by  reports  from  Miller 
Creek,  and  reached  Dawson  in  June,  1897.  His  lot  was 
about  that  of  the  average  new-comer,  until  he  fell  in 

399 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

with  the  old  Caribou  miner.  On  the  brow  of  the  hill, 
two  hundred  feet  above  the  valley  of  Eldorado,  the  two 
men  began  digging.  Four  feet  down  they  found  gold, 
and,  without  waiting  to  see  how  much,  they  pitched  the 
gravel  back  and  put  in  another  fire  so  as  to  make  believe 
they  had  not  reached  bed-rock,  for  not  twenty  feet  from 
their  hole  was  a  path  down  which  the  miners  of  Eldorado 
daily  dragged  wood  for  their  fires.  Joe  hunted  up  his 
brother,  and  on  the  19th  of  March  he  staked  Discovery, 
100  feet  square,  and  Ben  the  same  area  alongside.  They 
sank  another  hole,  striking  bed-rock  at  nine  feet.  Cari- 
bou Billy  went  down  into  the  hole,  and,  after  looking 
around,  called  up,  "  We've  got  it !"  A  pan  was  passed 
down  to  him  and  he  sent  up  three  pans  of  dirt,  which  were 
put  into  a  sack  and  taken  to  the  creek  to  pan.  There 
was  $189.75  in  the  sack.  Before  they  could  get  back  to 
the  hole  another  "  party  "  had  been  down  and  found  a 
nugget  as  large  as  his  thumb.  Joe  threw  water  into  the 
hole  and  froze  it  and  then  recorded  the  claim.  A  stam- 
pede followed.  I  was  making  my  last  round  before  the 
thaw  of  the  creeks  at  the  time.  T  saw  men  going  up  a 
path  in  the  snow,  which  was  nothing  unusual,  and  some 
heaps  of  yellow  earth,  at  which  men  were  working  with 
picks  and  shovels.  The  hill  was  completely  staked  oflf, 
and  Dominion  surveyors  were  trying  to  straighten  out 
the  lines  of  the  stampeders.  I  looked  over  the  ground, 
admired  the  view  from  the  hill,  and  then  went  down  and 
talked  with  Joe  Putrow,  foreman  for  Professor  Lippy,  on 
No.  16  F^ldorado,  who  was  putting  in  a  dam  for  sluicing, 
and  asked  him  what  they  had  up  there.  Putrow  didn't 
think  there  was  anything  there.  Neither  did  others  I 
talked  with  ;  none  of  the  men  in  the  creek  had  been 
up  to  stake. 
That  evening,  at  the  Grand  Forks  Hotel,  the  survey- 

400 


^    2 

3        M 

=   2 


8    S 

o      W 


s:   o 


o 

o 
O 


3. 


o 


> 


.  I 


THE    "CLEAN-UP"    BEGUN 


ors,  who  did  not  know  more  than  any  one  else,  offered  me 
a  set  of  stakes  that  were  not  taken.  On  the  way  back 
in  the  morning  I  met  an  acxjuaintance  who  had  been 
working  all  winter  on  Bonanza.  He  had  his  sled  and 
prospecting  tools  ;  he  had  spent  several  days  digging 
on  the  hill,  and  was  on  his  way  back.  When  I  asked 
what  there  was  up  there,  he  replied,  in  his  picturesque 
language,  "  I'm  from  Missouri,  and  you've  got  to  show 
it  to  me.  I  couldn't  find  'colors'  in  holes  they  were 
throwing  half-ounce  nuggets  out  of.  I  think  it's  mostly 
'salted.'"  A  Missourian,  I  believe,  takes  nothing  on 
hearsay.  I  turned  back,  and  we  both  went  over  to 
Dominion  Creek  and  then  returned  to  town,  to  cogitate, 
a  few  weeks  later,  on  the  fickleness  of  fortune. 


The  "clean-up"  had  been  under  way  several  weeks  be- 
fore I  could  again  visit  the  mines.  Unfortunately  much 
of  the  work  of  sluicing  the  winter's  dumps  was  over, 
and  considerable  of  the  gold,  with  its  happy  owners,  had 
come  down  the  gulch.  But  the  scarcity  of  water  after 
the  subsidence  of  the  freshet,  owing  to  the  small  rain- 
fall, was  holding  back  the  work  on  Eldorado,  where  the 
largest  dumps  were;  and,  besides,  all  the  sumnif^r  work 
of  "ground-sluicing"  was  yet  to  be  done. 

Along  the  beaten  trail  to  the  diggings  the  aspect  m 
nature  was  that  of  another  clime.  The  therm(n'aeter 
had  been  indicating  70"  in  the  shade  at  mid-. 'ay,  and 
there  were  no  clouds  to  intercept  and  modify  the  rays 
of  the  sun.  Pack-horses  and  mules  loaded  with  sacks 
and  boxes  plodded  along  in  single  file  towards  the 
mines,  or  were  returning  empty  to  town.  vStampeders, 
in  squads  of  three  and  five,  with  coats  ofif,  and  mining- 
pans  and  shovels  on  their  backs,  picked  their  way  from 
tussock  to  tussock,  following  the  winding  trail  in  and 

403 


:,, 


I  I 

I   ■ 
I   I 


THE    KLONDIRR    STAMIMilDE 


out  among  the  trees  in  the  valley  of  lower  Bonanza, 
or  they  lay  on  the  ground,  resting  in  the  shade  of  the 
birches  by  rivulets  of  cold,  clear  water  that  trickled  out 
of  the  side -gulches.  Now  and  then  one  overtook  a 
miner,  leading  one  or  more  dogs  with  little  canvas  side- 
pcniches  stuffed  out  with  cans  of  provisions,  going  to  his 
claim.  Summer  had  changed  beyond  recognition  the 
winter's  trail.  Dams  of  crib -work  filled  with  stones, 
Humes,  and  sluice -boxes  lay  across  our  path  ;  heaps  of 
"tailings"  glistened  in  the  sunlight  beside  yaw  '"ng 
holes  with  windlasses  tumbled  in;  cabins  were  de  d 
— the  whole  rreek,  wherever  work  had  been  douv.,  uS 
ripped  and  gutted.  Nothing  but  flood  and  fire  is  so 
ruthless  as  the  miner.  ■   * 

Pretty  soon  we  came  to  some  miners  at  work.  One 
man  was  filling  a  wheelbarrow  at  a  dump  and  unload- 
ing the  earth  and  stones  into  a  string  of  sluice-boxes 
extending  from  a  long  flume  at  the  side  of  the  valley  ; 
another  man  in  rubber  boots,  with  a  close-tined  pitch- 
fork, stood  ankle -deep  in  a  torrent  of  water  that  half 
filled  the  boxes,  and  fork^^d  out  the  larger  stones.  A  little 
farther  on  three  men  were  "stripping"  muck  off  a  claim, 
ready  for  "ground-sluicing."  A  string  of  sluice -boxes 
running  through  the  middle  of  the  claim  brought  water 
from  a  dam  above,  and  as  the  water  fell  upon  the  frozen 
muck  they  "picked"  it  out  in  chunks  as  black  as  coal, 
which  the  water  gradually  dissolved  and  carried  off.  In 
several  places  "stripping"  was  finished  and  the  sluice- 
boxes  were  in  place  for  sluicing,  and  crews  of  eight  and 
ten  men,  in  their  shirt-sleeves,  all  wearing  rubber  boots, 
were  engaged,  some  in  wheeling  the  top  dirt  off  in  bar- 
rows and  dumping  it  at  one  side  of  the  creek,  while 
others  shovelled  dirt  from  bed-rock  into  the  boxes. 

One  man  stood  inside  the  sluice  with  an  implement 

404 


"(iRouND-sLUicrxr,  •• 

like  a  hoe  with  tines,  or  with  a  round  disk  of  wood  on  the 
end,  with  which  he  raked  the  heavier  stones  ttjwards 
the  dump-box,  where  another  man  stood  pitciiinjj^  thcni 
out  with  a  fork,  while  still  another,  at  the  end  of  the 
dump-box,  shovelled  the  small  stones  into  a  heap  each 
side.  Although  most  of  the  water  passes  throuijfl)  the 
boxes  or  flumes,  a  considerable  portion   leaks  into  the 


i 


li 


REMOVING   RIKKLES,    I'REl'ARATORY   TO    "  CLEANING-UP 


bottom  of  the  cut,  so  that  nearly  every  claim  had  a 
"china  wheel"  rigged  for  pumping  the  water  out.  The 
"china  wheel"  is  an  endless  belt,  with  buckets  every  foot 
or  so,  running  over  two  wheels  placed  as  far  apart  as 
the  depth  of  the  cut  makes  necessary,  the  upper  wheel 
being  worked  by  a  sluice-head  of  water  against  a  small 
overshot  wheel.  When  there  is  not  enough  water  the 
pump  is  turned  by  hand. 

405 


'^  It 


II   : 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAiMPEDE 


No  one  seemed  ready  to  make  a  "  clean-up,"  so  I  kept 
on  to  No.  13  Eldorado,  where  I  knew  one  of  the  "bosses," 
Here  a  big  flume,  higher  than  the  eaves  of  the  cabins, 
was  tapped  at  right  angles  by  strings  of  sluice-boxes, 
one  for  each  dump,  which  were  not  yet  all  sluiced. 
Four  claims,  Nos.  13,  14,  15,  and  16,  were  using  the  same 
dam  and  flume.  Half  a  dozen  men  were  lying  around 
idle,  and  I  was  told  they  had  been  nearly  a  week  waiting 
for  a  turn  at  the  water.  The  flume  was  as  dry  as  a  tinder- 
box.  I  had  the  good-fortune  not  to  have  been  there  long 
before  the  flume  began  to  drip,  and  pretty  soon  a  good 
volume  of  water  was  pouring  through.  I  noticed  three 
men  standing  beside  one  of  the  dumps ;  they  were 
"  Bill  "  Leggett,  one  of  the  owners  of  the  claim,  and  two 
workmen.  George  Wilson,  partner  of  Swiftwater  Bill, 
said,  *'  If  you  want  to  see  a  clean  -  up  you'd  better  go 
over  there."  A  tin  tub,  a  whisk-broom,  and  two  or  three 
small  copper  scoops  lay  on  the  ground  beside  the  boxes, 
the  riffles  of  which  were  clogged  with  dirt.  The  first 
the  men  did  was  to  lift  out  the  riffles,  and  then  they 
shovelled  the  dirt  from  the  bottom  of  the  boxes  into 
the  tub.  *  In  the  appearance  of  this  dirt  there  was  noth- 
ing strikingly  handsome  ;  at  a  little  distance  it  looked 
like  dirt  one  could  dig  out  of  the  ground  anywhere.  Mr. 
Leggett  climbed  up  on  the  flume,  raised  a  little  gate  at 
the  head  of  the  string  of  boxes,  sufficient  to  allow  half  a 
sluice-head  of  water  to  run  through.  Then  he  took  a 
position  beside  the  boxes,  which  stood  about  two  feet  off 
the  ground,  with  the  whisk-broom  in  one  hand.  O.ie  of 
the  men  then  shovelled  the  dirt  out  of  the  tub  into  the 
sluice-box,  and  Mr.  Leggett  began  sweeping  it  upward 
against  the  current.  The  lighter  stones  and  gravel  were 
immediately  carried  ofl^,  with  a  lot  of  dirty  water,  into 
the  dump-box.     The  sweeping  was  kept  up  until  there 

406 


MAKINCt    a    "CLEAN-UP" 


3  I  kepi 
bosses." 

cabins, 
e-boxes, 
sluiced, 
lie  same 

around 
waiting 
I  tinder- 
ere  long 
I  a  good 
sd  three 
3y   were 
and  two 
ter  Bill, 
etter  go 
or  three 
le  boxes, 
phe  first 
en  they 
xes  into 
as  noth- 
looked 

re.    Mr. 

gate  at 

)w  half  a 

e  took  a 

)  feet  off 

One  of 

into  the 

upward 
ivel  were 
iter,  into 
itil  there 


remained  in  the  bottom  of  the  box  a  mass  of  black  niai;- 
netic  sand.  The  man  with  the  broom  continued  sweep- 
ing ;  little  by  little  the  black  sand  worked  downward,  and 
at  the  upper  edge  blotches  of  yellow  began  to  appear.  In 
probably  five  minutes  there  lay  on  the  bottom  a  mass 
of  yellow,  from  which  nearly  all  the  black  sand  was  gone. 
The  yellow  was  not  bright  and  glittering,  but  dull — 
almost  the  color  of  the  new -sawn  wood  of  the  boxes. 
The  water  was  turned  off  and  the  gold  carefully  scooped 


"CI.KAM.Nll-UI'"  SUMMKU    DICCMNGS,  .No.   36    KI.DUkAlK) 

up  into  the  pan,  where  it  looked  like  fat  wheat,  with  here 
and  there  a  grain  as  large  as  a  hazel-uut.  There  was 
only  $800  in  the  pan,  Mr.  Leggett  said — a  small  clean-up 
for  Eldorado. 

On  No.  36,  two  miles  above,  summer  work  had  liegun. 
The  claim  had  been  "stripped"  the  summer  before,  and 
now  a  crew  of  half  a  dozen  men  had  just  finished  iheir 

407 


^ii 


if 


i^ 


•<  >' 


!  8    l«l 


if    Mft 


■    IP 


;  ■  I 


'      St 


THE    KLONDIKE    vSTAMPEDE 

first  shovelling  into  three  strings  of  boxes.  As  I  stood 
on  the  bank  looking  down  into  the  .t,"  I  saw  a  man 
go  up  to  the  dam  and  shut  off  the  water.  Then  a  tall, 
middle-aged  man,  in  a  flannel  shirt  and  rubber  boots,  who 
appeared  to  be  the  "  boss,"  and  who  proved  to  be  Mr. 
Styles,  half-owner  of  the  claim  with  Alec  McDonald, 
walked  out  upon  the  boxes  and  picked  up  some  nug- 
gets, which  he  dropped  into  the  pockets  of  his  overalls. 
Another  man  then  followed  him  out,  and  they  lifted  the 
riffles  out,  tapping  each  frame  against  the  side  of  the  box 
to  shake  off  any  gold  that  might  cling  to  it,  and  passed 
them  to  a  third  man,  who  laid  them  in  the  dump-box. 
Then  Mr.  Styles  took  a  tool  made  from  an  old  shovel, 
bent  and  trimmed  off  square  at  the  end  like  a  hoe,  and 
with  this  he  hoed  the  dirt  into  a  heap  in  the  second 
box  up-stream.  Half  a  sluice -head  of  water  was  turned 
on,  which  carried  away  considerable  mud.  Three  tall 
"  horses "  were  next  placed  alongside  the  boxes  and  a 
plank  laid  over  them,  so  that  a  man  could  walk  along 
and  look  into  the  boxes.  The  water  was  now  turned 
oft'  entirely,  and  the  lower  end  of  the  last  box  was  lifted 
up  and  allowed  to  rest  upon  a  stick  laid  across  the 
dump-box,  a  heavy  stone  being  placed  on  top  to  hold  it 
firm.  A  very  small  quantity  of  water  was  now  let 
through.  Mr.  Styles  and  an  assistant  took  a  gold-pan, 
a  whisk-broom  each,  some  little  scoops,  and  a  wooden 
paddle  about  a  foot  long,  and  walked  out  on  the  trestle. 
Mr.  Styles  began  pushing  the  dirt  against  the  current 
with  the  paddle.  Considerable  mud  and  light  dirt  was 
worked  off,  and  then  each  took  a  whisk-broom  and  began 
sweeping  the  remaining  sand  with  the  upward  move- 
ment before  described,  and  when  no  more  sand  could 
be  worked  out  the  gold  was  scooped  up  into  the  pan. 
The  same  operation  was  gone  through  witii  at  the  two 

408 


Il 


HIGH    PANS    OF    GOLD 


I  stood 

V  a  man 
n  a  tall, 
ots,  who 

be  Mr. 
;  Donald, 
lie  nug- 
overalls. 
if  ted  the 

the  box 
d  passed 

mp-box. 
1  shovel, 
hoe,  and 
second 
s  turned 
iree  tall 

s  and  a 
Ik  along 

V  turned 
^as  lifted 
ross  the 
0  hold  it 

now  let 
jold-pan, 

wooden 
e  trestle. 

current 
dirt  was 
id  began 
d  move- 
nd  could 
the  i)an. 

the  two 


other  boxes,  the  gold  from  each  being  put  into  a  separate 
pan  and  then  taken  to  the  owners'  cabin.  In  the  pho- 
tograph below,  showing  Mr.  Styles  at  the  door  of  his 
cabin,  there  are  four  pans  that  scan  to  contain  gold. 
The  fourth  is  a  pan  of  gravel  that  I  did  not  notice 
in  range  when  the  picture  was  taken,  and  shows  how 
easy  it  would  be  to  take  a  picture  of  a  panful  of  sand 


A    $5000   CLIiAN-Ul' 

and  call  it  "gold."     The  clean-up  was  also  a  small  one 
— about  $5000, 

George  Wilson  showed  me  his  note -book,  with  the 
rect)rds  of  the  pannings  made  during  the  winter  on 
vSwiftwater  Bill's  "lay,"  of  which  he  was  half -owner. 
The  "pay"  was  already  located,  and  they  simply  panned 
to  keep  upon  the  "streak."  The  first  pan  was  taken 
October  19,  1897,  and  the  last  March  11,  1898,  and  about 

409 


■M\ 


^ll 


■  ? 


J- 
\ 

i  ■ 


I      ! 


(   ' 


1 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

two  pans  a  day  were  taken.  The  total  was  $6584.50, 
an  average  of  $50  to  the  pan  !  On  many  claims  on 
Bonanza  and  Eldorado  pans  of  ;|3  to  $8  were  so  com- 
mon that  they  failed  to  cause  special  comment.  Still, 
to  show  how  misleading  single  high  pans  are,  a  pan  of 
$150  was  found  on  a  certain  claim  which  on  the  clean- 
up hardly  paid  the  wages  of  the  men.  The  pay-streak 
on  No.  3  Eldorado  was  not  located  until  late  in  March, 
and  several  of  the  "  laymen  "  had  quit  work  in  discourage- 
ment. When  the  "pay"  was  found,  the  first  fourteen 
pans  went  $2200.  Two  nuggets,  weighing  respectively 
$312  and  $400,  were  found  during  the  summer  on  No.  36 
Eldorado. 

The  question  is  often  asked,  What  was  the  largest 
amount  of  gold  taken  in  a  single  pan  ?  One  of  about 
$1700  was  reported  on  Eldorad'o,  but  was  probably  a 
"picked"  pan — that  is,  taken  a  little  here  and  a  little 
there  —  and  therefore  not  representative.  On  No.  36 
Eldorado,  in  August,  the  shovellers  were  handling  dirt 
which  any  one  could  see  at  a  glance  was  very  rich.  One 
of  the  workmen  threw  a  shovelful  out  on  a  flat  rock  to 
show  the  boss,  and  another  was  added  so  as  to  make  a 
full  pan.  Mr.  Styles  panned  the  dirt  out,  and  it  went 
$690  (figuring  $17  to  the  ounce).  A  second  pan  went 
over  $500.  These  were  not  "picked,"  but  "shovelled 
square."  I  asked  Mr.  Styles  to  estimate  the  product  of 
a  single  "box-length."  He  said  that  from  a  space  15  X  12 
feet  he  had  taken  ;|i 7,000.  His  "pay"  being  two  feet 
thick,  a  richness  is  indicated  of  .$1.20  to  the  pan. 

The  "  Dick  Lowe  Fraction,"  probably  the  richest  ground 
in  Klondike,  carries  the  pay -streak  of  Bonanza  and  that 
of  Eldorado  and  the  "wash"  of  Shookum  Gulch.  The 
foreman,  out  of  whom  a  corkscrew  couldn't  pull  any  in- 
formation of  the  amount  of  his  clean-ups,  confessed  to 

410 


|nd  that 
The 
I  any  in- 
tssed  to 


No.  4  Above 


FORKS  OF 


+  Discovery  Claim 


No-  2  ADove  Discovery 


No.  2  A  Above  (Dick  I.owe  Fraction) 


No    3  A 


PANORAMIC  VIEW  OF   BONANZA  CREEK   BETWEEN    DISCOVERY  CLAIM   AND  THE   [dRKS  OF   BONANZ/ 


No.  3  Above 

hlE   FORKS  OF   BONANZA   AND   ELDORADO  CREEKS.  IN   AUGUST,  1898,  TWO  YEARS   AFTER  THE   DISCOVERY 


No.  4  Above 


\ 


, 


I 

\ 
r 

> 

mm 


i  t 


THE    RICHEST    D  I  (10  IN  OS 

have  taken  four  pans  containing  forty  ounces,  or  .fo.So, 
each,  and  that  had  he  desired  he  could  have  "picked" 
a  pan  of  a  hundred  ounces.  A  man  told  me  he  saw  a 
"cupful"  of  gold  panned  out  of  a  single  shovelful  of 
dirt.  Those  whcj  saw  the  first  clean-up  from  this  strip 
of  ground  say  that  it  was  all  two  men  could  do  to  carry 
oflf  the  gold  in  two  pans  from  the  clean-ups  of  the 
dumps.  A  "  panful "  of  gold  is  not  by  any  means  a 
"pan  full."  A  mining  -  pan  will  bear  only  so  much 
weight  without  "buckling"  when  lifted  by  the  rim,  but 
it  holds  safely  seventy -five  pounds.  This  year  it  was 
estimated  that  forty  days'  sluicing  off  the  dumps  turn- 
ed out  $60,000.  Summer  work,  "ground -sluicing,"  be- 
gan about  the  end  of  July.  Half  a  dozen  men  were 
working.  At  the  end  of  three  weeks  seven  panfuls  of 
gold  were  carried  away  to  the  cabin — about  300  pounds, 
or  $75,000.  In  the  ne.vt  si.\  days  $68,000  was  cleaned  up, 
making  a  total  for  the  year  of  about  $200,000.  These 
estimates  are  only  approximate,  but  made  by  careful  on- 
lookers who  reported  what  they  saw.  Leaving  a  wide 
margin  for  inaccuracy,  and  assuming  that  a  whole  500- 
foot  claim  ran  as  evenly  as  the  78 -foot  strip,  it  would 
represent  over  $1,300,000;  and  if  authorities  are  right 
who  say  that  by  the  present  crude  methods  of  mining 
not  more  than  onc-fonrtJi  of  the  whole  amount  of  gold 
in  the  ground  is  taken  out,  the  possible  richness  of  Klon- 
dike ground  is  bewildering  to  contemplate.  The  creeks 
are,  however,  left  in  such  shape  that  it  does  not  pay  to 
work  over  the  ground  the  second  time  by  present 
methods,  the  only  hope  being  cheaper  labor  and  some 
kind  of  hydraulicking  on  a  large  scale. 

Charley  Anderson,  who  was  "buncoed"  into  buying 
No.  29  Eldorado,  has  taken  out  $300,000  for  his  two 
years'  work.     He  gave  a  "lay"  to  a  man  who  had  be- 

411 


■ 


d 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

friended  him  before  he  went  to  the  Yukon.     This  "lay- 
man "  expected  to  clean  up  $130,000. 

Last  November  two  men  applied  to  Picotte  &  Hall, 
No.  17  Eldorado,  for  work.  They  were  given  a  supposed 
valueless  "  lay,"  60  x  40  feet,  sunk  to  bed-rock,  and  in 
the  first  pan  scraped  up  $400.  Two  months  later  Hall 
offered  them  $50,000  to  leave  their  work,  but  they  re- 
fused. Their  clean  -  up  is  not  known,  but  they  stated 
that  their  "prospect"  pannings  for  the  winter  lacked  just 
$150  of  being  an  even  $10,000. 


lilf 


The  benches  continued  the  wonder  of  the  camp.  The 
hill -sides  for  eight  miles  below  and  four  miles  above 
Di^'^r'vcry,  on  Bonanza  Creek,  were  spotted  with  dumps, 
encircling  spots  like  French  Hill  and  Lancaster's  "Gold 
Hill"  like  a  fillet  of  gold  at  a  nearly  uniform  level.  All 
day  long  was  heard  the  szvis/i,  sxcish  of  hundreils  of  rock- 
ers. "  Bed-rock  "  of  the  benches  is  a  stiff,  clay-like,  decom- 
posed mica  -  schist,  extending  from  the  so-called  "  rim," 
nearly  level  into  the  hill.  The  best  workings  were  at  the 
"rim,"  where  the  gold  was  covered  by  only  a  few  inches 
of  dirt.  As  the  miners  dug  into  the  hill  the  depth  of 
pay  increased  from  a  few  inches  to  several  feet.  Those 
on  the  second  tier  were  obliged  to  sink  shafts.  Five  or 
six  tiers  back  holes  were  sunk  by  the  slow  process  of 
burning  over  one  hundred  feet.  I  was  at  Staley's  after 
he  had  worked  about  twenty  feet  into  the  face  of  the 
hill,  and  the  gold  could  be  plainly  seen  in  the  strip  of 
dark  earth  and  gravel  about  a  foot  thick.  Every  panful 
of  dirt  then  going  into  their  single  rocker  was  worth  $5. 
Two  claims  northward  of  Staley's  a  man  named  David- 
son rocked  out  ten  pounds  of  gold  for  three  consecutive 
days  !  I  happened  to  be  at  Lancaster's  one  day  at  noon, 
just  after  a  clean-up  of  seventy-six  ounces.    In  the  after- 

413 


CARRYING    DOWN    THE    GOLD 

noon  fifty  more  ounces  were  rocked  out,  or  $2142  for  the 
clay,  the  Klondike  bench  record  for  one  rocker.  One 
hundred  dollars  a  day  was  common  in  several  places. 
There  were  claims  one  hundred  feet  square  worth  prob- 
al:)ly  $50,000,  yet  there  were  others  in  the  most  favorable 
locations  that  did  not  yield  a  single  dollar  from  edge  to 
edge  of  the  claim. 

Rich  bench  discoveries  were  made  on  Bear  and  Quartz 
creeks,  and  on  Dominion  ;  the  latter,  however,  being  at 
lower  levels  than  on  Bonanza. 


1^ 


The  gold  was  carried  down  on  the  backs  of  men,  mules, 
and  dogs.  It  was  nothing  unusual  to  see  twelve  or  six- 
teen men  along  the  trail  loaded  with  gold  from  a  single 
claim.  The  amount  of  gold  a  man  can  carry  for  a  long 
distance  is  much  less  than  one  might  suppose.  Gold  is  one 
of  the  most  concentrated  substances  known,  and  there  is 
scarcely  any  way  of  equalizing  the  weight  so  it  will  bear 
evenly  upon  the  back.  One  500, 600,  or  800  ounce  moose- 
hide  sack  full  of  the  dust  makes  an  ample  load  for  a  man. 
The  sack  is  wrapped  in  cloths,  then  put  into  the  pack- 
strap;  but  many  a  sack,  especially  those  belonging  to 
the  smaller  miners,  was  carried  down  in  blankets,  partly 
to  make  the  load  carry  more  softly,  and  partly  to  avoid 
suspicion,  although  whenever  one  observed  a  blanket 
dragging  hard  on  the  straps,  one  could  be  pretty  sure 
there  was  gold  inside.  Horses  and  mules  brought  down 
the  greater  part  of  the  clean-up.  The  amount  actually 
carried  by  a  single  horse  has  been  somewhat  exagger- 
ated. The  packers,  returning  "  light,"  preferred  to  di- 
vide the  gold  equally  among  all  the  horses,  and  so  two 
sacks  of  gold,  weighing  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  to 
one  hundred  and  thirty  pounds,  worth  $25,000  or  more, 
was  the  usual  load  for  one  horse.     The  sacks  for  horse- 

413 


t  ii 


V:i 


<    .1 


1 1- 


Til)':    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

back  packing  were  wrapped  in  about  a  dozen  thicknesses 
of  canvas,  and  then  hished  each  sitle  of  an  ordinary  [)ack- 
sadille,  or  else  dropped  into  the  capacious  side -pouches 
of  the  leathern  arapijo.  When  carried  in  the  latter  way 
several  hundred  thousand  dollars  might  pass  by  unno- 
ticed. No  extraordinary  precautions  seem  to  have  been 
taken  against  robbers.  Bartlett's  train  of  a  dozen  mules, 
which  brought  down  more  gold  than  any  other,  was 
simply  in  charge  of  twt)  men,  who  rode  one  at  each  end 
of  the  string  with  a  shot-gun  resting  over  the  pommel 
(jf  the  saddle.  Notwithstanding  the  opportunities  pre- 
sented, there  were  but  one  or  two  cases  of  highway  rob- 
bery, and  those  only  for  small  amounts.  Much  more  gold 
was  stolen  by  miners  from  their  pariners  or  employers. 
There  rarely  was  an  opportunity  for  a  common  workman 
to  steal,  unless  in  charge  of  the  clean-up. 

It  was  a  [)retty  sight  to  see,  as  one  could  almost  any 
day,  a  train  of  eighteen  dogs  working  between  Dawson 
and  the  mines  in  charge  of  one  mar,  who  led  one  dog 
while  the  rest  followed  or  walked  ahead.  One;,  when 
coming  down  creek  with  twenty  to  thirty  pounds  of  gold 
each,  one  of  the  dogs,  in  attempting  to  walk  a  foot -log 
over  the  creek,  slipped  and  fell  in.  Fortunate'  f'  the 
dog,  his  load  slipped  ofi"  and  he  swam  ashor^  _  gold 

was  afterwards  fished  out  and  saved. 

The  total  output  of  the  Klondike  amounted  l.  ')ctw  c\\ 
ten  and  eleven  millions,  or  a  weight  of  about  twenty  iive 
t(Mis.  Earlier  estimates  of  the  probable  amount  gave 
$15,000,000  to  $20,000,000.  But  on  the  clean-up  the  win- 
ter dumps  did  not  turn  out  as  expected.  An  immense 
amount  of  work  on  Lower  Bonanza  produced  small  re- 
sults, the  laymen  on  several  claims  consenting  to  remain 
only  upon  receiving  seventy-five  per  cent.  On  the  other 
hand,  upper  Bonanza  and  Eldorado  washed  -  up  better 

414 


..»!S9».«S«,JIM^ 


E 


TIIIC    OUTPUT    OF    KLONDlKIi; 


ickticsses 
Liry  pack- 
-  pouches 
itter  way 
by  iinno- 
ave  been 
t;n  mules, 
ther,  was 
each  end 
:  pommel 
ities  pre- 
way  rob- 
nore  gold 
nployers. 
workman 

iiost  any 
I  Dawson 
;  one  dog 
ic';,  when 
:1s  of  gold 
\  foot -log 
f(^  the 
V  gold 

*  betw  n 
renty  live 
unt  gave 
)  the  win- 
immense 
small  re- 
to  remain 
the  other 
lip  better 


than  "prospects"   indicated.     The  output  was  divided 
among  the  creeks  about  as  follows  : 

I'^ldorado,  $4,000,000  to  $5,000,000;  Bonanza,  $3,000,000 
to  $4,000,000;  Hunker  and  Bear,  $1,000,000  ;  Dominion, 
Sulphur,  and  other  creeks,  $1,000,000.     The  amount  re- 


^^QpMBINATK 


DOC,    I'ACK-I'KAIN    I.KAVING    DAWSON    FOR    THE    MIMIS 

ceived  by  rehners  and  the  United  Staves  Mint,  chiefly  at 
vSeattle  and  vSan  Francisco,  amounted,  tetween  July  r  and 
November  i,  1898,  to  $10,055,270.* 

If  the  number  of  men  directly  engaged   in  the  pro- 
duction of  this  sum  may  be  considered  as  2000  (and  it 

*  Samuel  C.  Duniiam,  Report  of  IT.  S.  Department  of  Labor. 

4'5 


I  I 


t 


$ 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

is  nearly  twice  the  number  estimated  by  one  excellent 
authority),  this  output  represents  an  average  produc- 
tion per  man  o(  over  $5000. 

Upon  reaching  Dawson  the  gold  was  taken  either  to 
the  warehouses  of  the  commercial  companies  or  to  the 
"vaults"  of  two  newly  arrived  banks  —  the  Canadian 
Bank  of  Commerce  and  the  Bank  of  British  North 
America — where  it  was  packed  in  strong,  square,  iron- 
bound  boxes  for  shipment  by  steamer  to  Seattle  and 
San  Francisco. 

A  complete  assaying  office  was  established,  where 
miners  could  have  their  gold  assayed  at  about  the  same 
cost  as  "outside,"////^  freight  and  insurance,  and  re- 
ceived drafts  or  bank-notes  for  the  full  value.  No  lot 
of  less  than  fifty  ounces  was  received  for  assay.  The 
gold  came  from  the  smelter  in  ingots  weighing  forty  to 
one  hundred  ounces,  of  the  shape  and  size  of  chocolate 
cakes. 

The  gold  from  the  different  creeks  varies  greatly  in 
fineness,  as  is  shown  by  the  following  table  supplied  by 
the  assay  office  : 

Lower  Bonanza $15.75  to  $16.35  to  the  ounce. 

Upper  Bonanza $16.75  to  $18.50. 

Eldorado  (Creek) $16.50. 

French  Hill $15  to  $16.50. 

Mouth  of  Skookum $15  (much  quartz  in  the  gold). 

Dominion,  nearly $17. 

Hunker,sometimes $i7-5o. 

Bear $15  to  $16. 

Forty- Mile   and    Birch    Creei<s 

(American  Ter.),  nearly     .     .     .  $17.50. 

Minook  (American  Ter.),  about     .  $iS. 

The  different  kinds  are  distinguishable  to  the  trained 

416 


PRIMITIVE    BANKING    FACILITIES 


eye.  F'dorado  gold,  having  the  largest  alloy  of  silver, 
tin,  etc.,  has  a  distinct  brassy  color  as  compared  with 
upper  Bonanza  or  Dominion  gold. 

"Trade"  gold,  the  dust  in  ordinary  circulation,  had 
been  rated  at  $17  per  ounce,  but  Klondike  gold  proving 
to  be  of  less  value  than  that  in  the  American  territory, 
where  the  standard  had  been  originally  fixed,  the  banks, 
soon  after  their  arrival,  in  June,  reduced  the  price  to  $16, 
which  amount,  according  to  the  assay  office,  is  nearly  50 
cents  more  than  its  actual  value,  because  of  the  dirt  and 
black  sand  usually  left  in  it.  This  magnetic  sand  is  readily 
removed  with  a  strong  magnet,  and  in  some  transactions 
it  is  required  to  be  done.  The  Bank  of  Commerce  had 
arrived  in  a  scow,  and  found  temporary  quarters  in  a 
small  warehouse,  about  fifteen  by  eighteen  feet  in  di- 
mensions, with  no  windows  and  a  single  door,  in  front  of 
which  a  counter  was  built,  leaving  sufficient  space  inside 
for  customers  to  stand.  Within  the  room  was  a  table 
and  chairs,  and  the  agent,  Mr.  Wills,  assisted  by  one  or 
two  clerks,  received  gold-dust,  which  he  weighed  in  a 
pair  of  immense  scales,  issuing  paper  money  or  drafts 
in  return.  The  "vaults"  were  two  wooden  tin  -  lined 
boxes,  four  feet  long,  three  feet  wide,  and  three  feet 
deep,  with  a  lid.  Upon  one  occasion  I  saw  these  half 
full  of  gold  sacks,  also  five  boxes  of  gold  packed  for  ship- 
ment, each  holding  from  500  to  800  pounds  of  gold-dust 
— close  to  a  million  dollars  in  all.  On  the  table  in  front 
of  the  agent  was  a  stack  of  notes  a  foot  high,  though  the 
door  was  wide  open,  and  there  was  not  a  weapon  or  a 
guard  in  sight.  Afterwards  they  removed  to  a  large 
building  next  to  the  barracks.  Being  under  govern- 
ment auspices,  each  shipment  of  gold  was  accompanied 
by  a  mounted  policeman  armed  with  a  Winchester  rifle. 
The  first  quarters  of  the  Bank  of  British  North  America 
2D  417 


11 


:    I 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 


was  even  more  crude— only  a  frame  of  scantling  covered 
with  canvas. 

'' ClucJiaJiko  money,"  as  currency  is  called,  rapidly  su- 
perseded gold-dust.  The  Bank  of  C\)mmerce  alone  issued 
nearly  a  million  dollars  in  bank-notes  during  the  sum- 
mer. The  new  -  comers  also  brought  in  much  small 
change,  with  the  result  that  by  the  end  of  summer  about 
half  the  retail  business  was  conducted  in  currency.  The 
use  of  currency  was  further  encouraged  by  an  important 
decision  t)f  the  court,  which  declared  that  gold-dust  could 
not  be  forced  in  payment  of  indebtedness  unless  express- 
ly stipulated. 

There  have  been  curious  checks  presented  to  cashiers 
of  banks,  as  when  Jay  Gould  purchased  a  railroad  and 
drew  a  check  in  payment  on  the  back  of  an  old  envelope; 
but  probably  there  never  was  one  more  unique  than  a 
check  presented  at  the  Bank  of  Commerce  in  Dawson, 
It  was  written  on  a  piece  of  spruce  lumber  about  si.x 
inches  square  with  a  wire  nail  "toe-nailed"  into  its  up- 
per edge.     It  read : 

"C.vN.vui.w  Ij.vnk  (11-  Commerce. 

"  Gmt/niiiit, — Please  pay  W.  F.  Foster  S3.00  for  services  ren- 
dered. J.  C.  HoK.Ni-:  &  Co. 

"  Bv  B. 

"  Dawson  Ciiv,  /4//-7/,v/ 4,  iSijS." 

The  check  was  duly  endorsed  "  AV.  F.  Foster,"  and 
stamped  "  Paid."  The  cashier  was  in  doubt  what  the 
nail  had  been  driven  in  for,  until  Mr.  Foster  suggested 
that  it  might  be  for  "  filing  "  the  check. 

From  the  moment  it  was  understood  that  the  richness 
of  Klondike  was  locked  in  frozen  ground,  the  brains  of 
inventors  had  been  busy  trying  to  devise  a  (|uicker  and 
cheaper  way  of  getting  at  the  gold  than  burning.  One 
of  the  most  practical  of  these,  and  the  only  one  I  saw  in 

418 


mmt 


S  T  E  A  M  -  T  li  A  WIN  G    MACHINE 

operation,  was  a  machine  consisting  of  a  hollow  auger 
having  a  diameter  of  nine  inches  with  a  length  of  twelve 
inches,  and  a  hollow  stem  connecting  with  a  generator, 
through  which  steam  was  forced,  thawing  the  ground 
as  the  stem  was  turned,  and  the  stem  being  lengthened 
as  the  depth  increased.  When  stones  were  reached  too 
large  to  pass,  the  auger  and  various  drills  and  picks  were 


1 

*' 

■> 

i,,  ■_h'^ 

JL  It^W' 

■ 

8bi 

f 

r--^ 

...si 

*  ^ 

\ 

wl 


LU,\mNi;    lUiXFS    ok    cold    IPON    TIIK    SIKAMliU    KOR    SHIIVMKNT   (11    T 


used  to  loosen  them,  or  else  blasting  was  resorted  to.  It 
was  successfully  tried  on  the  Hat  at  Dawson,  and  a  nine- 
teen-foot h(jle  was  put  down  for  $330  that  would  have  cost 
$700  to  sink  in  the  old  way.  The  inventor  charged  ^1$ 
per  foot  for  the  first  ten  feet,  and  if!2o  per  foot  for  each 
succeeding  foot.     This  price,  while  high,  was  about  half 


the  cost  of  burning 


IJy  such  means  a    claim  can   be 
41  y 


1 1  '. 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 


r  j 


fi  • 


& 


Itil'l'"  'ps^' 


punched  full  of  holes  until  the  pay -stream  is  located, 
when  it  can  be  worked  in  the  old  way.  Patent  "riffles," 
for  saving  the  fine  gold  lost  at  present,  were  brought  in, 
but  not  yet  tried.  The  only  other  labor  -  saving  ma- 
chinery used  was  a  common  road-scraper  operated  by 
a  steel  cable  passing  over  a  drum  run  by  a  small  steam- 
engine,  used  for  removing  the  top  dirt  in  summer  dig- 
gings. Dredging-machines,of  which  much  was  expected, 
and  of  which  several  arrived,  have  not  up  to  the  present 
been  succe^'^ful,  their  sanguine  promoters  appaiently  be- 
ing unaware  that  the  gold  does  not  lie  on  the  boUom  of 
the  frozen  rivers,  but  many  feet  below,  in  frozen  gravel. 

Of  all  the  fortunes  in  Klondike,  Alexander  McDon- 
ald is  generally  credited  with  having  the  largest.  He  is 
a  Scotchman  born,  who  came  into  the  Yukon  in  1895, 
after  varied  success  as  a  miner  in  Colorado.  At  the 
time  of  the  Klondike  strike  he  was  in  the  employ  of 
the  Alaska  Commercial  Company  at  Forty-]Mile,  where 
he  showed  good  judgment  in  buying  mining  properties. 

In  the  stampede  from  there,  McDonald  was  obliged 
to  join  or  be  left  alone,  and  reached  the  new  diggings 
in  September,  1896.  Being  too  late  to  stake  in  the  rich 
ground,  he  used  what  money  he  had  in  buying-in  at  the 
low  prices  which  prevailed  at  that  time.  His  first  in- 
terest was  No.  30  Eldorado.  Although  he  thought  so 
little  of  it^  that  he  put  men  to  work  on  a  "lay,"  svhile 
he  went  to  work  on  another  claim,  there  is  no  doubt  that 
he  was  among  the  first  to  rightly  apprehend  the  rich- 
ness of  Klondike  mines.  By  mortgaging  his  claims 
(payable  at  the  clean-u|)  on  "bed-rock")  he  purchased 
other  claims,  with  few  errors  in  judgment.  He  is  only 
half  or  quarter  owner  in  the  richest  claims  that  are 
credited  to  him,  but  he  now  owns  upwards  of  forty 
interests  and  full  claims.     In  appearance  he  is  a  large, 

420 


E 


"KING    OF    THE    KLONDIKE" 


located, 
"riffles," 
)Ught  in, 

ing  ma- 
rated  by 
11  steam- 
in  er  dig- 

xpected, 
i  present 
ently  be- 
oUom  of 
I  gravel. 

McDon- 
t.     He  is 

in  1895, 
At  the 
inploy  of 
le,  where 
roperties. 
s  obliged 
diggings 
I  the  rich 
■in  at  the 
;  first  in- 
oiight  so 
,y,"  Nvhile 
oubt  that 
the  rich- 
is  claims 
)urchased 
[e  is  only 
that  are 

of  forty 
)  a  large, 


brawny,  swarthy  man,  canny  and  close  of  mouth,  with 
a  curious  habit  of  slowly  rubbing  his  chin  whenever  a 
new  proposition  is  presented  to  him.  He  makes  it  a 
rule  to  first  say  "  No  "  to  every  proposal,  however  al- 
luring, thus  gaining  time  to  think  it  over.    At  one  time 


PACK-TEAM,  LOADKD  WITH  GOLD,  GOING  DOWN  BONANZA  CREEK 

in  the  camp  whatever  "  Big  Alec  McDonald"  aj^proved 
of  in  mines  was  "all  right."  His  fortune  has  been  esti- 
mated at  $5,000,000,  and  may  be  more  than  that.  While 
that  much  gold  and  more  may  be  in  his  ground,  it  is 
hard  to  say  what  he  is  actually  worth.  To  -  day,  how- 
ever, he  is  popularly  known  as  "  King  of  the  Klondike." 


'*  ■] 


■>.  ,; 


CHAPTER  XX 

iMidsummcr  in  Dawson — Newspapers — How  We  Heard  tlie  News  of  the 
War — Fourth  of  July — Variety  Tlieatres — Religious  Work — Benevo- 
lent Societies — Sickness — Milk  $30  a  Gallon — "  Lost :  A  Gold  Sack  " 

,HE  first  number  of  the  Yukon  Mid- 
iiij^ht  Sun  was  issued  on  the  nth  of 
June.  It  was  a  four- page,  three- 
column  (9x12  inch  form)  weekly, 
but  was  subsequently  enlarged  to 
a  four-page  paper  of  seven  columns 
each.  The  subscription  price  was 
50  cents  per  copy,  or  $15  per  year.  Its  first  Yukon  num- 
,ber  was  published  in  the  late  winter  at  Caribou  Cross- 
ing, its  single  issue  there  being  the  Carilwu  Sun.  On 
the  i6tli  (jf  June  appeared  the  Klondike  Nuf^gct.^  a  par- 
ticularly well -printed,  four -page,  four -column  folio,  is- 
sued semi- weekly,  at  50  cents  per  copy,  or  $16  a  year. 
Early  in  September  appeared  The  Klondike  Miner,  a 
weekly. 

The  startling  news  of  the  blowing-up  of  the  Maine  in 
Havana  Harbor  was  brought  in  late  in  the  spring  by  the 
"Montana  Kid,"  a  sporting  gentleman  who,  in  his  haste 
to  get  out  of  Dawson  the  fall  before,  had  borrowed  a 
team  of  dogs  without  the  owner's  permission.  There 
were  indefinite  rumors  of  war.  About  June  t  a  new- 
comer brought  word  that  some  one  had  told  him  he  had 
seen  a  bulletin  at  Seattle  (;f  a  big  battle  with  the  Spanish 


HEARING    NEWvS    OF    THE    WAR 

fleet.  No  one  credited  it.  Representatives  of  outside 
newspapers  planned  tor  public  readings  of  the  first  def- 
inite news,  and  stationed  a  man  at  Klondike  City  to  in- 
tercept any  newspapers  that  arrived.  On  the  6th  of  ' 
June  word  was  passed  along  the  street  that  a  paper  had 
been  found,  and  every  one  was  told  to  be  at  the  "  A.  C." 


MIDNIGHT  SUN 


DAWSON    NORTHWBST  TERRITOHY.  SATURDAY    JUNE   IITH.  1898. 


NO.  |. 


GOLD  OUTPUT  FOR  THE  YEAR 


TWENTY    niLLIOjSS. 


ThUt  Is  the  Amount  Which 
the  Klondike  Will  Pro- 
duce This  Year. 


uiuch  lower.  Kot  more  tlun  (vrenty<6ire 
claims  on  Eldorado  bave  been  exteiiiiiTly 
worVed  Dtirini;  the  winter,  while  drift- 
infc  ^*H  going  on,  ytry  little  tboroujfh 
prc'Specting  for  the  piifposeof  dettrmin- 
in<{  the  value  of  the  gmv-el  wM  done. 
The  dump*  iLi.c  not  been  sampled,  and 
as  a  rvsuU  very  fe-v  mine  owners  or  man- 
agers  had  any  definite  idea  befo^Y  they 


which  i«  expected  to  leav%  ten  od' the 
18th  Inst      Their  deirtcVfra,  While    oi» . 
teQMbly  ooly  for  a  teinp'^vary   *tay,  buy 
be  permanent.     Their  U  hanlly  oie  of 
tlie  old  tlOiers  wl^o  doetB-rt  e»prw»  re-< 
gret  that  the  good  old  Ontain  aod  tbe- 
wortliy  "firtllady  of  thf  Yukon"  are  to 
Uke  their  di^parture .  probably  for  fcood* 
The  Midnight  Sun  »*!II  have  more  *»i 
say  of  t^  good  work  Captvin  SonaUr- 
tine  has   done  in  the  Vvjon   country 
Certainly    the   departure   of   Do  people 
from  thia  country  b«>  eVf   Uuied   *>. 


Store  at  eight  that  evening'.  Long  before  the  appointed 
thiie  the  crowd  began  to  secure  pkices  around  a  goods 
box  that  had  been  placed  in  the  middle  of  the  street. 
By  eight  o'clock  fully  five  liundred  i)eople  had  gathered. 
Promptly  at  the  hour  the  New  York  Times  man  and 
** Judge"  Miller,  a  lawyer  from  San  Francisco,  came 
down  the  street  with  another  crowd  at  their  heels,  and 
pushed  inside  the  ring.  The  Judge,  who  had  been 
chosen  as  having  a  good  voice,  wearing  a  cowboy 
hat,  mounted  the  box.  There  was  a  brivithless  silence 
as,  after  making  one  or  two  opening  remarks  to  make 
himself    feel    at    home,   the   Judge  o[)ened  the    paper— 

4^3 


ft  ii     Mi 

I 


i  ti 


J  II 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 


J 


fv^r 


i 


2: 


% 


i  } 


;s•^ 

«■ 
> 

M 

1 

■ 

I 


=  »»»•« 

■<>.—   5  i  " 


Si  - 


II 


^  E   S  J  i 


Ps.-s 
f  w ■  «c  ag 

>c.  j«r-« 
.2—'  V  s  s: 

t-xutZ 

M    ^  <  ^ 

■=  •  s  .« 

a«  £  -  c 
e     a  I 

*  »;• 

«l  E-gt 

•825 

J!         t 
(.  U;   B  ICC 


&0 


1 

w 

'I 


a  Seattle  daily  of  two  weeks  previ- 
ous. Clear  and  distinct  came  the 
words  :  "  Dewey's  Great  Victory. 
The  Spanish  Fleet  Annihilated  !" 
There  was  a  moment's  silence, 
when  a  cheer  broke  out  from  five 
hundred  throats,  and  arms  and 
hats  were  waved  in  the  air.  When 
the  reader  could  begin  again,  and 
read  something  about  the  English 
captain  telling  the  German  admi- 
ral "Hands  off!"  the  enthusiasm 
of  the  crowd  knew  no  bounds. 

They  cheered  and  cheered,  de- 
manding every  item  of  news  re- 
lating to  our  preparations  for  the 
war  that  evidently  was  on.  That 
night  hardly  anything  else  was 
talked  about.  Next  day  another 
paper  was  found,  and  as  soon  as  it 
was  known  a  crowd  started  down 
the  street  for  the  Alaska  Commer- 
cial Company's  store  like  a  lot  of 
schoolboys,  calling  out  "  Miller  ! 
Miller!"  Now  for  the  first  time 
we  heard  of  the  preliminary  move- 
ments of  the  Atlantic  fleets;  our 
unpreparedness  for  the  war;  the 
bombardment  of  San  Juan ;  the 
sad  mishap  to  the  Mlnshno.  A 
third  paper  gave  us  details  of  the 
fight  at  Manila.  Again  and  again 
the  reader  paused  for  the  cheers 
of  the  crowd  as  the  graphic  story 
424 


story 


CELEliRATING    FOURTH    OF    JULY 

of  the  battle  was  told.  WIkmi  that  part  was  reached 
where  the  Spanish  captain  nailed  his  colors  to  the  mast 
and  his  brave  men  kept  firing  as  the  ship  sank  beneath 
the  waves,  there  was  a  dead  silence.  Then  several  low 
voices  said,"They  were  all  right!  They  were  all  right!" 
There  was  not  a  man  in  the  crowd  but  whose  heart  was 
touched,  and  it  would  not  have  been  hard  just  then  to 
have  raised  a  cheer  for  the  men  who  could  fight  like  that. 

Immediately  after  this  the  two  newspaper  plants  were 
in  operation,  and  there  were  no  more  public  readings  un- 
til the  22d  of  July,  when  papers  arrived  with  accounts  of 
the  destruction  of  Cervera's  fleet  on  July  3. 

The  first  newspapers  with  war  news  brought  whatever 
was  asked.  As  it  was  knov.-n  the  news  was  for  public 
reading,  their  owners  did  not  make  e.Korbitant  demands, 
the  highest  price  I  knew  of  being  $1.  In  April  si.vteen 
hundred  newspapers,  all  several  months  old,  were  brcjught 
in  by  dog  teams  and  sold  for  $1  eacii.  The  new-comers 
brought  boatloads  of  all  the  prominent  daily,  weekly, 
and  monthly  periodicals;  magazines  sold  for  $t  and 
newspapers  for  25  cents. 

It  sounded  strangely  out  of  place,  in  this  erstwhile 
wilderness,  to  hear  the  newsboy,  walking  up  and  down 
the  street,  with  a  bunch  of  papers  in  his  arms,  shouting 
at  the  top  of  his  voice, "  Springfield  Republican,  Detroit 
Free  Press,  Chicago  Times-Herald,  Omaha  Bee,  Kansas 
City  Star — all  the  daily  papers!"  even  though  they  were 
from  three  weeks  to  a  month  old. 

The  Americans,  who  comprised  the  bulk  of  the  popu- 
lation, felt  proud  of  Dewey's  victory  ;  but  hardly  any 
one  was  prepared  for  what  happened  at  just  one  min- 
ute past  twelve  on  the  morning  of  July  4th.  At  that 
time  night  and  day  were  so  near  alike  that  half  of  Daw- 
son was  awake  and  up.     At  one  minute  past   midnight 

4^5 


>  ! 


1 


It', 


! 


'^HE    KLONDIKE    vSTAMPEDE 

a  rifle  cracked  out  on  the  hill  side.  Within  the  next 
minute  a  dozen  shots  followed,  here  and  there  over  the 
camp.  In  five  minutes  five  thousand  guns  and  revolvers 
were  making  a  steady  roar — bang!  bang!  bang!  Every- 
body else  then  remembered  that  it  was  the  Fourth  of 
July — and  what  an  uproar !  The  street  was  soon  filled  with 
men  whooping  and  emptying  revolvers,  shot-guns,  and 
rifles.  The  dogs,  in  alarm  at  the  uproar,  began  running 
with  ears  straight  back  and  tails  between  their  legs,  as  if 
distracted.  They  ran  into  people,  or  into  each  other,  un- 
til, with  the  jumping,  howling,  yelling,  and  shooting,  it 
looked  and  sounded  as  if  pandemonium  were  let  looser 
The  police  at  the  barracks  sprang  out  of  bed,  and  I 
afterwards  heard  one  of  them  laughingly  say  he  didn't 
know  but  that  the  Americans  had  begun  to  carry  out 
their  one-time  threat  of  rebelling.  However,  when  they 
remembered  it  was  the  national  holiday,  the  cornet- 
bugler  gave"  Yankee  Doodle,"  "America," and  the  "Star- 
Spangled  Banner."  In  the  afternoon  the  local  town  band, 
made  up  of  theatre  orchestras,  returned  the  compliment 
by  a  serenade.  The  dogs  kept  on  running  whichever  way 
they  happened  to  be  started.  Several  plunged  into  the 
Yukon,  and  it  was  days  before  their  owners  got  many 
of  them  back. 

During  midsummer  four  variety  theatres  were  run- 
ning, with  the  usual  adjuncts  of  bars  and  gambling 
lay-outs.  They  were  respectively  the  "Pavilion," 
"Monte  Carlo,"  "Mascot,"  and  "Combination."  The 
last  named  was  a  wooden  building,  but  the  rest  were 
simply  tents.  The  entrance  to  all  was  through  the  bar- 
room, but  at  the  Monte  Carlo  there  was  an  additional 
bar  inside  the  theatre  for  the  greater  convenience  of 
the  patrons.  The  stage  was  commodious,  and  in  some 
there  was  real  painted  scenery,  but  in  others  the  "  scc- 

426 


E 


A    Iv  L  ()  N  I)  I  K  E    T  II  E  A  T  R  E 


the  next 
over  the 
'evolvers 
Every- 
i'ourth  of 
illedwith 
;uns,  and 

running 
egs,  as  if 
)ther,  un- 
ooting,  it 
let  loose! 
d,  and  I 
he  didn't 
^arry  out 
hen  they 
3  cornet- 
he  "Star- 
wn  band, 
npliment 
ever  way 

into  the 
^ot  many 

rere  run- 
shambling 
^avilion," 
n."  The 
rest  were 
1  the  bar- 
idditional 
lience  of 
1  in  some 
the  " sce- 


nery "  consisted  solely  of  a  screen  of  striped  '^cd-ticking 
or  similar  goods,  which  was  also  used  abundantly  for 
wall  coverings.  The  audience  were  seated  on  boards 
placed  on  stools  ;  but  "  Eldorado  kings,"  government 
officials,  and  other  "dead  game  sports"  "spending  their 


THE 


COMBINATION        THEATRE   AND    DANCIMIAM. 


money,"  occupied  "  boxes  "  on  one  or  both  sides  of  the 
pit,  and  raised  sufficiently  to  allow  the  occupants,  who 
sat  upon  hand-made  board  stools,  to  see  over  the  heads 
of  the  common  herd.  The  price  of  admission  was  50 
cents  (including  cigar  or  drink)  in  all  but  the  "Com- 
bination," where  it  was  $1.  For  the  boxes  there  was  no 
extra  fixed  charge,  but  occupants  of  such  were  expected 
to  receive  female  members  of  the  troupe,  or  any  lady 
friends  they  themselves  might  choose  to  bring  in,  to 
help  them  dispose  of  champagne,  which  varied  in  price 
from  $40  a  quart  to  $40  a  pint.  At  the  opening  of  the 
"  Monte  Carlo  "  one  man  spent  $1700  for  wine  during  one 

427 


1 

I 
If 


1^  j| 


1 


Till-:    KLONDIKE    vST  A  M  1' i:  I)  l- 


V'  ' 


1;' 


ni^ht.  The  same  eveniiij^  two  ^'wh  opened  forty-ei.i>;lil 
bottles  of  wine,  receiving  $4  commission  on  each  bottle. 
The  orchestra  consisted  Usually  of  [)iano,  violin,  trom- 
bone, and  cornet,  and  musicians  were  each  paid  $20  a 
day.  The  actors  and  actresses  received  various  salaries, 
$150  a  week  prevailing.  At  the  "Monte  Carlo"  girls  for 
the  "grand  balls"  after  each  night's  performance  were 
specially  employed  at  $50  per  week  and  commissions. 
The  running  expenses  of  the  latter  place  were  $500  a  day. 
The  show  was  a  succession  of  vaudeville  parts,  inter- 
spersed with  impromptu  local  sketches,  which  were 
changed  each  week.  vSome  of  the  performers,  who  came 
out  of  li^nglish  and  American  concert-halls,  gave  a  fair- 
ly good  performance  ;  while  their  impromptu  jibes  and 
horse-pranks  would  convulse  the  audience,  who  were 
never  over-critical,  for  whom  the  humor  could  not  be 
too  broad  for  them  to  relish,  and  who  never  tired  of  the 
same  performances  night  after  night.  Many  of  the  songs 
turned  on  something  of  local  interest,  as  "Christmas  in 
the  Klondike,"  or  "  The  Klondike  Millionaire,"  and  when 
sung  by  Freddy  Breen,  "the  Irish  Comedian,"  sounded 
not  badly,  but  when  committed  to  paper  were  the  veriest 
doggerel.  Of  the  female  vocalists,  with  one  or  two  ex- 
ceptions, the  less  said  the  better.  Untrained,  never  even 
second  rate,  at  times  they  sadly  tried  even  the  patient 
Klondike  audience.  As  the  old  pirate  at  the  Admiral 
Bcnbozv  used  to  sing  : 

"Sixteen  men  on  a  dead  man's  chest, 
Yo  ho,  ho,  and  a  bottle  of  rum. 
Drink  and  the  devil  had  done  for  the  rest, 
Yo  ho,  ho,  and  a  bottle  of  rum." 

Besides  the  Jesuits  already  spoken  of,  several  religious 
bodies  established  missions  for  work  among  the  miners. 

428 


R  1<:  L  I  ( i  I  ( )  L'  S    \V  ( )  R  K 


I    :5 


The  Presbyterians,  undtM-  Rev.  Hall  Voiiiiji:,  built  a  chuicli 
ill  the  fall  of  i<S(;7,  the  upjjer  story  of  which  was  c;ut  into 
rooms  and  rented  to  lods;ers,  but  it  was  destroyed  early 
in  the  winter  by  lire.  The  Church  of  Enj>;land,  under 
Rev.  R.  (i.  H(nven,  built  a  church  in  the  sunmu'r  of  iSij.s. 
The  Christian-li^ndeavorers  and  the  familiar  Salvation 
Army  held  daily  meetings  in  the  open  during  the  sum- 
mer. The  attendance  at  the  missions  seemed  so  small 
in  so  large  a  population  as  that  of  Dawson  as  to  incline 
one  to  the  prevailing  oj)inion  that  among  miners  of  the 
class  of  whom  prospectors  are  made  religious  work  linds 
not  much  place,  unless  accom[)anied  by  work  for  their 
physical  as  well  as  moral  well-being. 

The  benevolent  societies,  such  as  the  Masons,  Odd- 
Fellows,  etc.,  were  organized  by  Colonel  O.  V.  Davis, 
of  Tacoma,  Washington,  and  the  government  presented 
them  with  a  plot  of  ground  upon  which  they  built  a 
40X40 -foot  "Society  Hall"  of  logs.  Many  destitute 
men  were  cared  for  by  these  societies.  One  case  par- 
ticularly drew  my  attention,  for  it  was  a  fair  sample  of 
what  straits  a  man  might  be  in  who  had  property  out- 
side, but  was  "broke"  or  without  friends  here.  He  was 
an  old  man,  a  ^lason,  worth  ;«>2o,ooo  in  property  outside, 
yet  absolutely  penniless.    The  ^Masons  paid  his  way  home. 

As  had  been  predicted,  the  town  was  in  a  terrible 
sanitary  condition.  There  was  no  drainage,  and,  except 
,by  giving  warning  about  cesspools,  the  government 
did  nothing  but  provide  t7<.'o  public  conveniences,  en- 
tirely inadecpiate  for  a  town  of  nearly  20.000.  Fortu- 
nately good  drinking-water  was  had  at  several  springs. 
Still,  as  could  not  be  otherwise  in  a  city  built  upon  a 
bog,  by  midsummer  the  hospital  was  filled  to  overflow- 
ing, men  were  lying  on  the  floor,  and  there  were  matiy  in 
cabins,  suffering  from  typhoid  fever,  typhoid- malaria, 

429 


*    1  I 


.I 


■it:  : 

'It  , 


i;: 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

and  dysentery.  The  number  of  deaths  were  three  to 
four  a  day,  ia  one  day  reaching  a  total  of  nine.  At  this 
juncture,  when  the  amount  of  sickness  had  become  a 
cause  for  general  alarm,  the  Canadian  doctors,  who  were 
greatly  outnumbered  by  American,  began  prosecutions 
against  the  latter,  and  several  of  the  highest  standing, 
but  who  had  come  unprovided  with  licenses  to  practise 
in  Canada,  were  haled  before  the  magistrate,  jailed,  and 
fined.  While  Americans  should  have  expected  this,  it 
was  admitted  by  most  persons  that  a  more  unfortunate 
moment  for  the  prosecutions  could  hardly  have  been 
chosen.  The  American  physicians  continued  practis- 
ing, however,  without  signs  or  asking  fees.  In  all  there 
were  about  seventy  physicians  in  the  camp,  only  a  few 
of  whom,  however,  found  lucrative  practice.  In  August 
another  hospital,  "The  Good  Samaritan,"  was  established, 
with  a  local  board  of  directors,  the  government  contrib- 
uting $5000  towards  its  maintenance. 

I  jotted  into  my  note-book,  among  odd  items,  that  the 
first  cat  and  kittens  in  the  Yukon  arrived  in  August, 
and  the  kittens  sold  for  $5  to  $10  each.  About  a  dozen 
horses,  brought  up  from  Forty-Mile  and  Circle,  had  win- 
tered, being  kept  in  stove-warmed  tents  and  fed  chiefly 
upon  native  hay  that  cost  ifsoo  to  1^1200  per  ton.  vSeveral 
hundred  more  horses  and  mules  came  in  on  scows,  until 
they  became  too  common  to  notice  particularly.  Many 
beeves,  including  one  herd  of  a  thousand,  were  driven  in 
over  the  Dalton  Trail  ;  but  the  arrival  of  the  first  milch 
cow,  however,  that  ever  came  into  the  Yukon,  and  her 
first  milking,  were  duly  recorded  as  follows  in  the  A'/fi^^'^t 
of  July  8th: 

"THIRTY  DOLLARS  A  GALLON 

"  Tlie  first  milk  cow  ever  in  Dawson  arrived  on  Wednesday. 
She  is  not  verv  well  pie."  .ed  witii   her  surroundintjs  and   did  not 

430 


BSK^^/ 


MILK    $so    A    (xALLoX 

give  much  milk,  but  that  first  milking  brousrht  in  just  $30  in 
Klondike  dust.  She  will  he  treated  *o  the  best  that  Dawson 
atlords — (lour  and  packinj^-case  hay  -  .uil  is  e.\])ected  to  do  belter 
as  the  days  grow  shorter.  One  hundred  dollars  a  milking  is  not 
t(K)  much  to  expect  of  her,  as  she  comes  of  good  family  and  will 
not  do  anything  to  make  her  ancestors  turn  over  in  their  graves 
—or,  more  properly  speaking,  in  the  stomachs  of  their  j)atrons. 
H.  I.  Miller  is  the  man  who  brought  her  in  along  with  19  male 
companions.  The  gentleman  is  more  favorably  known  as  "  Cow" 
Miller,  and  as  Cow  Miller  let  him  be  known  from  this  on." 


J  ^n 


M 


Before  the  newspapers  started,  and  even  afterwards, 
notices  of  buying  and  selling-,  meetings,  and  lost  and 
found,  were  posted  upon  the  bidletin- boards  at  the 
Alaska  Commereial  Company's  store.  Df  the  curious 
signs  that  appeared  there  from  time  to  time  the  follow- 
ing is  remarkable,  as  showing  an  unusual  confidence  in 
human  honesty : 

"NOTICE 

Lost 

June  24  1893  about  11  at  night  a  gold  sack  containing  ail  a  |)0(m- 
woman  had  :  between  old  man  Buck  (Choquette)  cabin  and  small 
board  House  selling  Lemonade  upon  bank  of  the  Troandike 
River  any  person  finding  same  will- confer  a  vcrry  great  favor  a 
poor  woman  who  is  sick  and  must  go  out.  she  made  Her  Dust 
by  washing  and  mending  a  Liberal  reward  will  be  paid  by  En- 
quiring at  Ferry  Beer  Saloon  at  Lousotown  •  ridge." 


:         • 


CHAPTER    XXI 


m: 


li 


f 


I'? 


t 


(ii^vermnciU  in  the  Klondike — Mining  Laws — Iiitoinpelence  ami  Cor- 
ni|)ti()n  of  OtTiiials — The  Royalty  Tax — Collectiiii;  the  Rj^uities-- 
Invi-stiijatioii  of  Chaii^es — An  Ordeily  M  inins^  Cani[) 


D 


URIXCi  the  winter  of  1897-8  only  ten 
per  cent,  of  the  population  of  Dawson 
were  Canadians;  a  considerable  per- 
centage were  of  English  birth,  but  the 
overwhelming  majorit}'  were  Americans,  or 
foreigners  wht)  had  lingered  in  the  United 
States  long  enough  to  imbibe  American 
ideas.  In  the  crowd  which  poured  in  later 
the  percentage  of  Canadian  citizens,  or  British  subjects, 
was  probably  still  smaller.  These  people  under  United 
States  law  would  have  had  the  making  of  their  own  laws, 
subject  only  to  broad  statutory  limitations.  Indeed,  with 
reference  to  Alaska,  non-interference  with  liberty  by 
the  central  government  has  been  but  another  name  for 
neglect. 

In  the  Klondike,  those  who  best  knew  the  country's 
needs  had  no  voice  whatever  in  its  government  ;  all  laws 
were  made  at  Ottawa,  and  those  sent  out  to  enforce  them 
were  responsible  only  to  the  home  government,  or  to  tlu' 
officials  to  whom  they  owed  their  appointment.  Dawson 
was  an  "alien"  camp,  where,  if  the  position  of  the  ma- 
jority of  the  residents  was  different  from  the  "Ouit- 
lunder"  at  Johannesburg,  it  was  only  that  the  laws  were 

432 


ami   Cor- 


only  ten 

Dawson 
able  per- 

but  the 
ricans,  or 
e  United 
\merican 
[1  in  later 

subjects. 
M"  Vnited 
i\vn  laws, 
leed,  with 
berty  by 
name  for 

country's 
;  all  laws 
jrce  them 
,  or  to  the 
,  Dawson 
f  the  ma- 
he  "Ouit- 
laws  were 


(iOVERNiMExNT 

///  iiitiiit  more  liberal.  Distant  weeks  and  months  Ciom 
the  seat  of  responsibility,  it  is  not  ditHicult  to  understand 
how,  even  if  government  intended  well,  the  condition  of 
the  miner  might  be  scarcely  better  than  that  of  his  un- 
fortunate confrere  in  the  Boer  republic.  In  fact,  coiuli- 
tions  which  actually  prevailed  at  Dawson  were;  likened  by 
British  citizens  direct  from  the  Transvaal  as  even  worse; 
than  what  they  left. 

The  natural  difficulties  that  stood  in  the  way  of  ])ut- 
ting  into  iminediate  operation  an  effective  government 
were  so  great  that  one  should  not  judge  the  Klondikers 
too  harshly.  On  the  other  hand,  if  there  were  not  seri- 
ous disorders  it  was  due  less  to  the  (piality  of  govern- 
ment than  to  the  orderly  character  of  the  populatiim, 
and  to  the  fact  that  men  were  there  enduring  the  priva- 
tions of  an  Arctic  climate  to  make  their  fortunes  and 
get  away,  not  to  help  set  in  order  the  political  house- 
holds of  their  Canadian  friends. 

The  mounted  police,  both  officers  and  men,  in  tlu'ir 
capacity  as  preservers  of  order  and  as  individuals,  com- 
manded the  respect  of  every  miner.  Captain  Constan- 
tino, upon  his  departure  from  Dawson,  received  a  tes- 
timonial in  the  form  of  two  thousand  dollars'  worth  of 
nuggets,  which  were  subsequently  made  up  in  their  nat- 
ural form  into  a  beautiful  loving-cup,  to  show  how  the 
miners  felt  at  a  time  when  almost  every  branch  of  the 
public  service  had  forfeited  their  confidence.  It  seems' 
to  be  a  well-ordered  Canadian's  belief  that  an  ''official," 
whether  a  poli(H'man  or  a  land-surveyor,  is  qualified,  by 
reason  of  being  an  official,  to  fill  any  post  under  govern- 
ment. 

The  police,  instead  (>f  trained  mail-clerks,  were  given 
the  work  of  handling  the  mails.     Provoking  slowness  in 
the  transmission  and  delivery  resulted  from  their  inex- 
2£  433 


.1      ! 


iW 


■-,'!  I 


Till-:    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

perience  and  ku-k  of  system.  Often  it  required  a  week 
to  sort  a  mail.  Those  who  had  money  to  spare  preferred 
to  pay  $t  a  letter  to  a  policeman  to  ^ci  his  mail  after 
hfjurs,  or  else  employed  women,  who,  being  tj;allantly  ad- 
mitted, at  once  could  get  it  for  them. 


(;c)V  i-,K.\Mi:.M    iii:ii.iii.N(;s,  dawso.n' — KiiC(iiu)i.\(;  claims 

The  size  of  creek  claims,  at  the  time  of  the  Klondike 
strike,  was  five  hundred  feet  long  by  the  width  of  the 
valley;  all  other  claims  being  one  hundred  feet  square. 
The  miner  was  required  to  mark  each  corner  of  his  claim 
with  a  stake  four  feet  high,  scpiaring  not  less  than  four 
inches,  and  upon  one  face  of  each  stake  to  write  the 
number  of  the  (iaim  and  the  words:  "I  claim  five  hun- 
dred (or  fewer)  feet  up  (or  down)  stream  for  mining 
purposes.  (Signed)  John  Smith."  After  making  affi- 
davit of  discovery  of  gold,  and  paying  $15  to  the  (Jold 
Commissioner,  hr  received  a  lease  f(jr  one  year,  renew- 
able each  subsequent  year  at  an   annual   lenlal  of  $100. 

434 


f^i 


MlNlX(i    LAWS 

All  disputes  were  settled  by  this  officer,  who  was  account- 
able only  to  the  Minister  of  the  Interior,  and  possessed 
arbitrary  powers  without  appeal.  At  tirst  the  laws  and 
the  manner  of  enforcement,  althouijh  necessitating  jonu^ 
journeys  to  the  seat  of  the  reciirder,  i^'ave  s^eneral  satis- 
faction to  the  small,  scattered  mining  population.  \\i\{ 
when  the  news  of  the  discovery  of  Bonanza  Creek  reached 
Ottawa,  the  Dominion  cabinet,  in  ij^norance  of  the  true 
conditions,  passed  an  "Order  in  Council"  reducing-  the 
size  of  all  new  creek  claims  to  one  hundred  feet,  reserv- 
ing each  alternate  claim  for  the  crown,  and  imposing  a 
royalty  of  twenty  per  cv.ni.  on  the  gross  out[)ut  of  claims 
producing  over  $500  per  day,  antl  ten  per  cent,  on  all 
claims  producing  less  than  that  amoimt.  When  news 
of  this  measure,  only  ecpialled  by  the  recent  war-lax  of 
the  Boers,  reached  Dawson,  a  mass-meeting  of  the  miners 
was  held,  and  a  committee  oi  three,  consisting  of  Messrs. 
M.  Landreville,  a  miner;  Edward  J.  Ivivernash,a  lawyer, 
and  Dr.  K.  A.  Wills,  a  surgeon  in  the  mounted  polii^e, 
was  appointed  to  carry  to  '■)ttawa  a  petition  for  the  re- 
duction or  ai)olit.ion  of  the  royalty. 

So  great  was  the  outcry  in  C'anada,  however,  that  be- 
fore the  committee  reached  Octawa  the  cabinet  made 
haste  to  remedy  its  blunder,  and  by  "Order  in  Council," 
approved  January  18,  i8g.S,  reduced  the  royalty  to  ten 
per  cent.,  deducting  the  sum  of  $2500  (a  ridirulous 
amount)  from  the  gross  output  to  cover  tlie  cost  of 
working!  Creek  claims  were  increased  to  two  hundred 
and  lifty  feet  in  length,  to  be  staked  in  blocks  of  ten 
claims  each,  alternate  blocks  of  ten  being  reservctl  for 
the  crown.  Bench  claims  adjoining  creek  claim>\\cre 
made  two  hundred  and  fifty  feet  wide  by  one  '.housand 
feet  deep,  all  other  claims  being  two  hundi>-«l  .ind  fifty 
feet    scpiare.     Before    a    miner  could    stake  a  claim    or 

435 


THE    KLONDIKE    vS  T  A  M  I?  E  D  E 

perform  any  work  in  connection  with  mining,  except 
buying  stock  in  stock  companies,  he  was  recpiired  to  take 
out  a  "free  miner's"  license  at  a  cost  of  ijflro.  Tf  a  dis- 
covery distant  more  than  one  hundred  miles  from  the 
seat  of  the  recorder  was  made  by  live  or  more  persons, 

DATE  OF  U8u«7  C^*^-//  -  No.  261 1 

DOMINION  t^^  o^  CANADA 


PLActOF  Issue 


FREE   MINER^S   CERTIFICATE. 


woK-Tii«»w.imn.  ^— •      vw.10  FOR  One  Year  only. 


i^h\%  is  to  d^frtifg  /^/.-.^.Zr,,^,. 


»«r  « 


-M4«<  AaUt  *#»i*  ^Hj  ^^"^  *^ 


't?*€  /«*->AMMC 


*fa<t*t. 


u  one  xycax 


•^  ^_ ^::^„..„...^^  ^ 


c^     ^ 


r 


/^  r  ^ 


^^44^t^i^a*t4a, 


FRKF,    MIXr.R^    UCENi^F, 


te 


II 


they  might  appoint  a  tem[)orary  recorder  among  their 
own  number.  Wliiie  the  law  required  tlie  "gum -boot" 
miner  to  stake  /// /(V.uw,  so-called  "dredging  permits," 
in  five-mile  blocks,  were  granted  over  fifteen  hundred 
miles  of  Klondike  and  Yukon  streams  to  men  who,  for  the 
most  part,  had  never  seen,  nor  intemled  to  see,  the  Yukon. 
Such,  in  brief,  aie  the  regulations  now  in  force,  whicii 
further  provide  for  the  sale  of  timber-berths  to  private 

436 


except 

to  take 

If  a  dis- 

om  the 

jersons, 

2G11 


ircAR  only: 


ta  <^^   ^^ 


(^  «*•« 


ws,  their 
11  -  boot" 
)erinits," 
hundred 
),  for  the 
cYukcn. 
:e,  which 
>  private 


i 


Till':    C.OLI)    COMMISSI  ox  i:  K 

I)arties,  whereby  miners  are  virtually  prevented  from 
cutting  wood,  even  for  their  own  \.\<^ki^  except  on  such 
terms  as  the  monop(jlists  concede.  The  tendency  of  the 
new  legislation  is  against  the  "gum-boot"  miner,  the 
man  whose  enterprise,  labors,  and  hardsnips  have  made 
for  Canada  all  that  is  worth  while  in  the  Klondike  Id- 
day.  This  is  always  the  inevitable  trend,  but  lu^ver  in 
any  camp  has  so  much  been  done  in  S(j  short  a  time  in 
that  direction  as  in  the  Canadian  camp.  The  Gold 
Commissioner,  Mr.  Thomas  Fawcett,  c-ame  in  for  s(jme 
censure  for  what  his  superiors  were  al(jne  to  blame  for. 
Yet  a  position  calling  for  judicial,  legislative,  and  execu- 
tive qualities  of  :i  high  order  should  iiave  been  filled  by 
a  man  possessing  other  cpialifications  than  personal  hon- 
esty and  fair  ability  as  a  top<)gra[)hical  surveyor. 

The  commissioner  arrived  at  Dawson  in  the  summer  of 
1897,  and  established  an  office  in  a  small  cabin  with  a  single 
room,  and  with  two  assistants  began  receiving  api)lications 
for  claims.  The  rush  to  record  became  so  great  that,  in 
order  to  comply  with  the  law  limiting  the  time  in  which  a 
miner  had  to  record  after  staking,  the  wh')le  staff  were 
kept  busy  during  office  hours,  v^diich  were  strictly  from 
9  A.M.  to  5  I'.M.  The  registry  t>ooks,  or  copies  thereof, 
which  elsewhere  in  Canada  are  considered  public  prop- 
erty, were  not  accessible  to  the  public,  and  the  clerks 
were  quick  to  take  advantage  of  this  state  of  affairs  to 
begin  a  "side-door"  business,  selling  to  individuals,  for 
cash  or  interests  in  claims,  information  of  unrecorded 
claims.  Afterwards,  emboldened  by  the  impotency  of 
the  commissioner  to  correct  these  abuses,  fnvored  ones 
began  to  be  admitted  during  office -hours,  upon  pas«««j. 
and  recoided  claims  ahead  of  men  who  had  been  wait- 
ing often  tor  davs  in  line  outside.  It  became  recognized 
by  every  one  who  was  obliged  to  deal  with  the  office 

437 


'-  I 


m 


r«. 


lifl    ,  '; 


I* 


'I' 111-:     KLONDIKE    vSTAMIM-:UE 

t-liaL  Lhc  only  way  of  getting  even  what  belonged  to  him 
was  to  bribe  an  official.  Appeal  to  the  (iold  Commission- 
er was  as  likely  as  not  met  with  dismissal  in  an  arbitrary, 
unjust,()r  illegal  manner.  During  the  greater  part  of  the 
rush  there  was  no  one  to  verify  measurements  of  claims 
(only  survey  by  Dominion  land  surveyors  being  recog- 
ni/crd  officially).  The  commissioner  was  in  ignorance  of 
the  location  and  identity  of  creeks  ;  he  would  give  two  dif- 
ferent names  to  the  same  creek,  not  knowing  them  to  be 
the  same;  he  would  grant  the  same  claim  to  different 
men,  and  yet  refuse,  when  the  fact  was  proven,  to  refund 
the  record  fee  to  one  of  them  ;  he  allowed  two  disc(  vcries 
on  one  creek,  and  claims  became  so  mixed,  in  consequence 
of  overlapping  between  discoveries,  that  he  was  obliged 
to  close  the  creek,  to  the  great  loss  of  miners,  who  were 
not  allowed  to  record  (pending  arrival  of  official  sur- 
veyors), and  who  were  holding  the  claims  in  person,  in 
compliance  with  the  mining  law.  Thus,  between  the  in- 
competency of  the  commissioner  and  the  corruption  of 
his  clerks,  legitimate  business  came  almcjst  to  a  stand- 
still. The  general  law  of  Canada,  providing  that  no 
person  should  suffer  from  the  incompetency  of  an  official, 
was  of  no  effect  to  the  poor  miner,  who  had  neither 
nKMicy  nor  time  to  obtain  the  remedy. 

In  I'ebruary  two  "  Inspectors  of  ]\Iines,"  a  Crown  Prose- 
cuting Attorney,  and  Lands  Agent  (the  last  two  in  one 
person),  and  a  judge  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  North- 
west Territories,  arrived  in  Dawson.  The  judge,  the 
Hon.  Thomas  IL  .McGuire,  entered  ui)on  his  duties  at 
once,  largely  relieving  the  police  magistrates,  and  per- 
formed his  duties  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  entire  camp. 
Concerning  the  rest,  so  much  can  hardly  l)e  said.  The 
Crown  Attorney,  a  "  Pooh-Bah  "  in  fact,  leased  the  water- 
front   to    private    parties,  by    wIkmh    he   was   employetl 

43« 


I  N  C  O  .Ml'  ]•:  T  !■:  X  T    O  !•  F  U'  I  A  L  S 


in  a  private  capacity  as  legal  adviser;  ami  l)y  various 
acts  as  Crcnvn  Attorney,  Lands  Ai!;ent,  private  [)racli- 
tioner,  and  by  his  overbearing  and  threatening  conduct 
towards  his  critics,  aroused  a  general  belief  that  he  was 
using  his  official  powers  to  further  his  private  interests. 
The  mining  inspectors  had  only  such  previous  experience 
in  mining  as  they  may  have  acquired  as  a  liorse  dealer 
and  an  uncej"tificated  master  of  a  whaling  vessel,  re- 
spectively. 

Major  Walsh,  the  governor  or  administrator  of  the 
"Provisional  District  of  the  Yukon,"'  as  the  territory 
was  otlficially  known,  did  n(^t  arrive  until  summer.  I'inal- 
ly,  mass-meetings  of  outraged  and  indignant  citizens  were 
held  in  the  streets,  under  the  leadership  of  I'^nglishmen 
and  Canadians,  to  protest  against  the  mining  laws  and 
officials. 

The  jNIiners'  Association,  organized  for  self-protection, 
with  George  T.  Armstrong  and  Ur.  Percy  McDougal, 
both  British  citizens,  respectively  as  chairman  and  secre- 
tary, appealed  to  Ottawa  for  a  parliamentary  investiga- 
tion of  afTairs  in  the  Yukon.  Meanwhile,  on  May  27th, 
the  "  Yukon  Territory  "  had  been  created,  with  the  Hon. 
William  Ogilvie  as  Governor,  and  a  council  of  six.  The 
appeal  went  out  late  in  the  fall ;  si.\  months  later  a  Royal 
Commission  was  despatched,  naming  Mr.  Ogilvie  as  Com- 
missioner. The  guileless  miners,  who  locjked  for  a  clear 
investigation  from  top  to  bottom,  were  sadly  disappointed. 
The  investigation  was  one  of  accused  officials  by  them- 
selves. Although  conducted  with  impartiality,  the  miners 
found  simply  a  court  before  which  they  were  litigants. 
The  investigation  was  limited  to  specific  charges  men- 
tioned in  the  appeal,  and  to  none  others.  Many  of  the 
officials  and  witnesses  had  left,  and  the  miners  were  not 
permitted  to  bring  into  court  cases  (they  were  daily  hap- 

439 


f    '. 


THE    KT.ONDIKE    STAMPEDE 


i1 


m  'nl 


W  I' 

I      f  ' 


pening)  that  occurred  nf/cr  the  sending  of  the  petition. 
AdcHjuate  protection  was  not  granted  witnesses,  nor  was 
there  any  provision  to  pay  the  expenses  of  those  who, 
working,  many  miles  off  in  the  mines,  could  not  lose 
days  or  weeks  of  time  in  Dawson  to  testisy  during  the 
investigation  without  some  compensation.  The  miners, 
perceiving  that  the  investigation  could  not  accomplish 
their  purpose,  virtually  gave  up  the  fight.  The  accused 
officials  were  exonerated,  except  certain  persons  con- 
nected with  the  Gold  Commissioner's  Office,  who  were 
proven  to  have  taken  bribes  and  deprived  rightful 
owners  of  their  claims. 

Mr.  Ogilvie,  who  is  regarded  as  a  conscientious  man, 
and  of  whom  much  was  expected  in  remedying  the  abuses, 
succeeded  only  to  a  small  extent.  When  the  matter  of 
incorporating  the  town  was  raised,  those  who  were  en- 
titled to  vote  in  Canada  were  unanimously  against  the 
officials,  and  could  not  agree  on  certain  important  points, 
so  Dawson  remains  a  city  where  citizens  have  practically 
no  voice  in  the  local  governmenL 

The  police  control  of  the  country  was  as  nearly  per- 
fect as  one  could  expect.  Thefts  and  misdemeanors 
were  numerous,  and  effectively  dealt  with,  and  one  or 
two  murder  cases  were  tried.  The  saloons  were  closed 
on  Sunday,  nor  was  any  labor  permitted  on  that  day. 
A  man  sawing  wood,  for  his  own  use,  and  another  en- 
gaged in  fishing  were  arrested.  No  city  on  the  conti- 
nent presented  a  more  orderly  appearance. 

To  appease  the  miners,  who  had  threatened  to  make 
trouble  if  a  policeman  should  be  detailed  to  watch  their 
clean-ups  when  collecting  the  royalty,  a  mining  inspector 
simply  accepted  the  affidavits  of  miners  as  to  their  out- 
puts. In  cases  where  the  tax  bore  heavily,  the  royalty 
was  lowered   or    payment    was  temporarily  suspended. 

440 


V  L'  K  n  X   R  !•:  \'  1-:  X  I'  ic  s  A  X  1 )   1-:  X  1 '  i:  x  s  ic  s 

Among  those  so  relii'vcd  was  Alec  MrDoiiald,  the  "  Kinj; 
of  the  Klondike."  Without  doid)t  niiich  y;uld  was  with- 
held, although  the  penalty  for  so  doing  was  conliscation 
of  the  claim.  A  singular  fact  regarding  the  royalty  col- 
lection is  that  in  no  case  was  the  amount  paid  as  royally 
specified  on  the  receipt.  The  same  was  true  of  custom 
receipts  on  the  trail.  Ahout  $500,000  was  received  in 
royalties.  The  total  revenue  derived  from  the  Vukon 
was  $1,530,000.  The  expenditure  was  $647,000,  leaving  a 
balance  of  $883,000  paid  by  the  miners  ol  tiie  Yukon 
into  the  treasury  of  Canada,  or  a  /ic/  profit  of  about  $20 
upon  every  man,  woman,  and  child  who  entered  Cana- 
dian territory. 


I    ? 


1^  ^J^ 


IMAGE  EVALUATION 
TEST  TARGET  (MT-3) 


1.0 


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28 


150      '""^^ 


2.5 


Ui    |2g 


1.8 


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, 

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e'm,..  '  o>. 


/: 


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7 


Photographic 

Sciences 
Corporation 


33  WEST  MAIN  STREET 

WEBSTER,  N.Y.  14580 

(716)  873-4503 


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o^ 


CHAPTER   XXII 

Vegetalion  and  AgricuUutal   IVjp«»«,ibiIities — Animal    Life — Birds — Fish — 
Motxjuitocii — Native  Triljes 


Si 


HE  j^rcat  territory  of  Alaska  and  the 
Yukon  IS  divided  into  parts,  differing 
radically  in  j^eneral  features  of  climate 
and  vejijctable  and  animal  life.  Along 
the  Pacific  coast  both  rain  and  snow  fall 
are  jfreat,  vegetation  is  luxurious,  and  the 
air  so  mild  that  in  summer  even  the  ten- 
der humming-bird  finds  its  way  as  far 
north  as  Juneau.  The  interior,  however 
— comprising  the  valley  of  the  Yukon  and 
tributaries,  with  its  more  than  330,000  square  miles  of 
area — is  dry ;  the  rainfall  is  small  and  the  temperature 
hot  in  summer ;  in  winter  the  air  is  dry  and  excessively 
cold,  and  the  snowfall  i**  light.  Vegetation  is  confined 
mainly  to  a  moss  which  covers  the  ground  to  a  varying 
thickness,  and  to  three  varieties  of  trees — spruce,  white 
birch,  and  cottonworxJ.  These  are  found  abundantly 
from  the  lowest  valleys  to  the  tops  of  all  but  the  highest 
mountains.  In  the  flat  valleys  of  the  streams,  exposed  to 
the  rays  of  the  sun  and  with  [)lenty  of  water,  the  spruce 
grow  as  thickly  as  anywhere  in  the  world,  some  attain- 
ing a  diameter  of  two  feet,  while  trees  a  foot  in  diameter 
are  common.  On  the  sides  <>{  hills,  however,  the  trees  be- 
come suddenly  stunted  in  ai)()earance,  the  spruce  rarely 

442 


vice.  I':tati(.)N  and  agriculturi-: 


-Fisli— 


exceeding  a  few  inches  in  thickness,  but  the  rings  of 
growth  being  as  thin  and  close  as  the  leaves  of  a  book. 
The  white  birch,  not  less  beautiful  here  than  southward, 
rarely  exceeds  eight  inches  in  thickness  ;  the  cottonwood 
attains  to  a  foot  in  diameter.  Willow  bushes  and  alder 
trees  are  found  in  the  moist  places,  and  berries  of  sev- 
eral ground  and  bog  growing  species  are  found  often 
in  great  profusion,  and  there  are  not  a  few  species  of 
wild  flowers,  among  which  the  most  common  and  readily 
recognized  is  a  golden -rod  about  six  inches  in  height. 
Towards  the  mouth  of  the  Yukon  the  temperature  be- 
comes milder,  and  grasses  grow  luxuriantly  ;  but  the  trees 
grow  smaller,  until  the  characteristic  tree-clad  landscape 
of  the  Yukon  merges  into  a  bare,  rolling  tumira^  or  frozen 
morass,  skirting  the  shores  of  Behring  Sea.  In  conse- 
quence of  the  long  hours  of  sunshine,  garden  vegetables, 
when  planted  on  hill -sides  exposed  to  the  sun,  spring 
with  great  rapidity  out  of  the  fertile  soil.  Potatoes  are 
grr»wn  to  a  weight  of  seven  or  eight  pounds,  turnips  six- 
teen pounds,  while  cabbages,  radishes,  etc.,  are  readily 
raised.  The  larger  vegetables,  however,  are  coarse  in 
texture.  The  agricultural  possibilities  of  the  Yukon  are 
greater  than  has  been  generally  supposed,  but  the  short 
summer  probably  will  not  allow  the  raising  of  cereals 
or  fruits  that  require  a  long  season  to  ripen,  and  it  will 
hardly  support  an  independent  agricultural  population. 
Several  small  vegetable  gardens  at  Dawson  were  a  source 
of  large  revenue  to  their  owners.  A  bunch  of  about  six 
radishes,  each  no  larger  than  the  end  of  one's  thumb, 
readily  brought  $1  in  the  restaurants. 

Animal  life  in  the  Y^ukon  valley  is  not  so  varied  as 
farther  south,  but  its  species  are  important,  and  in  places 
exceedingly  abundant.  Easily  first  is  the  moose.  This, 
the  grandest  of  the  deer  family,  is  found  in  the  whole 

443 


\\ 


I 


•''^"-^-Ji^^'-'i^^'^^^ 


ill 

I' 


THH    KLONDIKE    STAxMPEDE 

region  of  trees,  and  is  very  abundant  on  the  Klon- 
dike—  undoubtedly  much  more  plentiful  than  in  any 
part  of  its  more  familiar  range  to  the  extreme  south 
and  eastward.  Of  the  stature  of  the  tallest  horse,  it 
wanders  at  will  from  valley  to  mountain-top,  in  winter 
browsing  upon  the  tender  twigs  of  the  willow  and  white 
birch,  the  light  snow  not  impeding  its  movements  and 
causing  it  to  "  yard,"  as  farther  south.  In  summer  it  is 
hunted  by  lying  in  wait  for  it  at  paths  leading  to  certain 
lakes.  During  the  winter  of  1897-8  probably  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  were  killed  around  Dawson  by  Indians  and 
white  men.  A  few  years  ago  moose-hams  could  be  pun- 
chased  for  $3  each  ;  now  they  bring  $1  to  $1.50  per  pound, 
the  hides  being  worth  $25  to  $30  each  fof  moccasins  and 
the  larger  gold -sacks.  The  moose  of  the  extreme  west 
of  Alaska  has  lately  been  found  to  be  of  a  new  species, 
distinguished  chiefly  for  its  great  size,  and  has  been  given 
the  name  of  A/as  ^^iifds.  The  moose  of  the  Klondike, 
when  specimens  have  been  examined  by  naturalists,  will 
probably  be  found  different  both  from  the  latter  and 
from  the  common  moose,  A/a's  atncrkana.  A  pair  of 
antlers,  respectively  4  feet  7  inches  and  4  feet  5  inches, 
evidently  locked  together  in  mortal  combat,  were  found 
on  Stewart  River  in  July,  1898.  These,  though  not  large 
for  Alaskan  moose,  sufficiently  indicate  what  a  struggle 
of  giants  had  taken  place  before  they  died  of  exhaustion 
or  were  pulled  down  by  wolves. 

The  woodland  caribou  roams  as  far  north  as  Big 
Salmon  River,  where  it  is  known  by  the  Takish  Ind- 
ians as  "Mut-siq."  North  of  there,  and  ranging  to 
the  shores  of  the  Arctic  Ocean  and  Behring  Sea,  is  the 
barren-ground  caribou,  or  wild  reindeer,  found  often  in 
immense  bands,  which  migrate  each  year  in  search  of  a 
peculiar  gray  moss  which  constitutes  their  food.     The 

AAA 


BIG    GAiME 

headwaters  of  Forty-Mile  and  of  Klondike  arc  two  cen- 
tres of  great  abundance.  Several  years  ago  three  hun- 
dred were  killed  in  Forty-l\Iile  town.  Early  the  past  fall 
two  white  men  on  the  up[)er  Klondike  killed  forty-seven, 
and  several  hunters  indci)endently  reported  the  herd, 
which  was  then  changing  its  feeding-grounds,  as  number- 
ing from  ten  to  twenty  thousand.  Ten  years  ago  deer 
were  regarded  as  not  occurring  east  of  the  coast  moun- 


■• 


»    1 


INTKKI.DCKKl)    MOOSK-HORNS    FOUND    ON    SIEWAKT    KIVKK 


tains  ;  but  at  the  Canyon,  at  Lake  T>abarge,  and  near  liig 
Salmon  I  saw  numerous  unmistakable  "deer"  tracks  in 
the  mud  and  light  snow  that  could  hardly  have  been  any 
but  those  of  the  Sitka  deer. 

The  white  goat  is  found  in  the  Chilkoot  ^lountains 
and  northward  to  T^akc  Labarge.  A  species  of  moun- 
tain sheep,  differing  from  the  Rocky  Mountain  bigiiorn 
in  its  i)ejt  being  woollier  and  of  a  dirty  white  color  (prob- 
ably "  Dall's  sheep"),  has  been  killed  at  F(jrt  Reliance. 

445 


T  H  S  K  L  O  N  I)  I  K  E    S  T  A  M  P  E  I)  IC 

"  Stone's  sheep,"  another  variety  of  the  bighorn,  discov- 
ered in  1890  on  the  Stikeen  River,  may  also  be  found  in 
the  Yukon  Valley. 

Bears  are  plentiful  and  of  two  kinds  in  the  Yukon  :  a 
so-called  "grizzly,"  or  "silver  tip,"  and  the  black  bear, 
both  the  black  and  "cinnamon"  phases  being  found  to- 
gether. The  caches  of  the  lonely  prospector  are  occa- 
sionally broken  into  by  grizzlies,  and  on  the  upper  Klon- 
dike a  miner  was  killed  by  oiie.  In  the  early  summer, 
after  their  winter's  sleep,  black  bears  frecpient  the  ex- 
posed hill -sides,  digging  for  roots  and  old  berries.  A 
party  on  »St:ewart  River,  in  descending  that  river  forty 
miles  on  a  small  raft  in  1898,  killed  five. 

The  gray  or  timber  wolf  is  found  in  scattered  bands. 
They  feed  upon  the  moose  and  caribou,  and  seldom  at- 
tack miners.  Sometimes  they  attain  great  size  and 
weight.  Mr.  J.  B.  Burnham,  of  /u'rrs/  and  Stream,  capt- 
ured one  near  I-'ort  Selkirk  that  weighed  upwards  of 
120  pounds.  A  hunter  on  the  upper  Klondike  killed 
one,  and  obtained  from  the  carcase  nearly  a  quart  of 
oil,  it  being  the  only  wolf,  the  hunter  told  me,  he  ever 
saw  that  had  any  fat  at  all.  I  saw  the  spot  on  the 
Klondike  where  the  band  to  \.  hich  this  belonged  had 
attacked,  killed,  and  devoured  a  moose  (Mily  a  few  days 
before.  Tw(j  apparently  distinct  kinds  are  met  with, 
recognized  as  the  "gray"  and  the  "black,"  but  they  are 
regarded  by  scientists  as  individual  variations  of  the 
same  species.  The  red  fo.\,  the  valuable  black  or  silver- 
gray  fo.\,  the  white  or  Arctic  fo.x,  the  cross  fox,  and  the 
blue  or  stone  fox  are  found  in  places  plentifully,  the  last 
three  being  confined  to  the  shores  of  Behring  Sea. 

The  furs  from  the  Klondike  are  of  the  most  beautiful 
(lescrii)tion,  rather  pale  in    color,  but  exceedi 


fly 


Beaver,  formerly  more  plentiful  than  now,  are  taken  by 

446 


^<«*.' Mk_MnAMM 


SMALL    A  N  I  U  A  L  S    AND    BIRDS 


the  Indians  with  a.harpoon  through  a  hole  in  the  ice,  the 
spot  being  baited  with  willow  twigs,  or  else  by  means  of 
a  peculiar  dead- fall  of  poles  l)uilt  on  the  bank  near  their 
homes.  Muskrat  are  plentiful.  The  wolverine  (not  a 
"wolf"  of  any  sort,  but  the  largest  of  the  weasels)  roams 
everywhere,  and  is  taken  in  dead-falls.  Its  coarse  brown 
and  black  fur  has  small  market  value,  but  is  in  great  de-. 
mand  for  the  trimming  of  the  winter  garments  of  the 
miner.  The  sable,ermine,mink,and  otter  are  found  every- 
where, the  last  two  not  being  plentiful.  The  varying 
hare, or  "rabbit,"  is  exceedingly  plentiful  in  some  years, 
rare  in  others.  It  is  taken  in  sinew  snares  by  the  Indians, 
and  its  white  coat  is  cut  int(;  strips,  plaited,  and  sewed 
into  coats,  mittens,  and  robes,  the  fur  being  the  lightest 
and  warmest  known,  except  the  Arctic  hare,  a  species 
with  longer  fur  found  near  the  Behring  Sea. 

The  Canada  lynx,  or  "  bob-cat,"  comes  and  goes  with 
the  rabbits,  upon  which  it  feeds.  Its  fur  makes  one  of 
the  best  robes.  A  species  of  marmot,  or  large  "  ground- 
hog," found  in  theChilkoots  and  along  the  coast,  is  taken 
in  snares  for  its  fur,  which  makes  warm  and  serviceable 
robes.  A  kind  of  ground  squirrel  is  found,  whose  pells 
make  the  lightest  and  best  /^arkas,  and  a  small  mouse 
(probably  "  Dawson's  mouse  ")  frequents  the  cabins  of  the 
miners  after  provender  ;  but  the  most  familiar  of  all  the 
small  animals  is  the  red  squirrel,  the  same  saucy,  chat- 
tering, scolding,  cone-tearing,  snow-burrowing  little  beast 
on  Bonanza  Creek  as  in  the  New  England  States. 

Bird  life  is  both  abundant  and  interesting.  There 
never  was  an  hour  of  the  day  in  winter  when  the  chip- 
per of  birds  was  not  to  be  heard,  and  as  spring  ap- 
proached the  woods  seemed  alive  with  Hocks  of  small 
cone-eating,  red-polled  linnets  and  white-winged  cross- 
bills, and   there  was  no   visitor   more   welc(^me    to  the 

447 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 


cabins  of  the  miners  than  the  Canada  jay,  or  moose- 
bird,  the  same  fearless,  confiding,  mysterious  camp-thief 
as  in  the  woods  of  Maine.  But  the  most  striking  feat- 
ure of  the  Klondike  landscape  is  the  raven,  whose  hollow 
"  klonk  "  is  heard  everywhere,  haunting  the  cabins  in 
winter  for  whatever  may  be  thrown  out,  feasting  on  the 
■  leavings  of  hunters  and  wolves,  in  summer  nesting  on 
the  inaccessible  cliffs  of  the  Yukon.  No  traveller  down 
the  river  has  failed  to  notice  the  thousands  of  holes  in 
the  tall  sand -banks  on  the  upper  Yukon,  the  nesting- 
place  of  the  bank  swallow,  which,  with  its  much  less 
common  relatives,  the  violet  -  green  swallow  and  the 
common  eave  or  cliff  swallow,  which  nest  in  the  crags, 
are  only  .summer  visitors  to  these  regions. 

Whoever  imagines  that  there  are  no  birds  in  Klondike 
should  have  stood  with  me  at  my  cabin  one  day  early 
in  May,  after  the  spring  migration  had  begun.  He 
would  have  thought  a  bird-shop  had  been  there  turned 
loose  among  the  evergreens  and  birches.  He  would 
have  heard  the  cheery  song  of  the  western  robin,  the 
"tsillip"  of  the  red-shafted  flicker,  the  soft  murmur  of 
the  beautiful  and  rare  Bohemian  waxwing,  the  jangling 
notes  of  the  graceful  rusty  grackle  walking  the  margins 
of  the  creek,  the  lisping  "tsip"  of  the  yellow -rumped 
warbler,  the  chipper  of  white  -  crowned  sparrows  and 
slate-colored  juncos,  mingled  with  the  melodious  love- 
songs  of  white -winged  cross -bills,  and  the  twittering 
of  innumerable  red-polls  feeding  in  the  birches.  Game 
birds,  however,  were  not  plentiful.  I  shot  two  ruffed 
grouse,  several  Canada  grouse,  and  one  blue  grouse — all 
I  saw.  Flocks  of  small  ptarmigan  were  frequently  met 
with  on  the  wind  -  swept  tops  of  the  hills.  Geese  and 
ducks  nest  sparingly  along  the  larger  watercourses. 

Among  the  inhabitants  of  the  water  the  lake  trout 

448 


FISH 


noose- 
D-thief 
r  feat- 
liollow 
)ins  in    . 
on  the 
ing  on 
•  down 
oles  in 
est  in  g- 
ch  less 
nd  the 
crags, 

londike 
ly  early 
m.     He 
turned 
;  would 
bin,  the 
rmur  of 
angling 
margins 
rumped 
Dws  and 
us  love- 
ittering 
Game 
o  ruffed 
)use — all 
fitly  met 
eese  and 
•ses. 
ke  trout 


grows  to  great  size  in  the  upper  lakes,  l)eing  taken 
weighing  24  pounds.  The  grayling  is  taken  in  spring 
with  hook  and  line,  with  either  a  bail  or  a  fly,  it  being  said 
to  rise  readily  to  the  "  coachman,"  "  brown  hackle,"  and 
"  raven."  The  burbot,  or  fresh-water  cusk,  is  taken  on 
set  lines  in  spring.  The  pike  is  taken  in  great  numbers 
at  Medicine  Lake,  on  the  trail  to  Hirch  Creek,  weigh- 
ing 15  to  18  pounds.  The  sucker  occurs  on  the  authori- 
ty of  Dr  Dawson.  The  whitefish  is  taken  in  the  lakes 
and  in  the  Yukon  at  Dawson,  weighing  as  high  as  40 
pounds.  But  the  fish  of  fish  is  the  salmcjn,  of  whicli 
there  are  several  sjjecies  or  varieties.  The  salmon  is  a 
salt-water  fish,  which  resorts  to  fresh  water  every  few 
years  to  spawn.  The  "king"  salmon  reaches  Dawson 
between  the  loth  and  15th  of  June,  and  is  taken,  weigh- 
ing as  high  as  51  pounds,  in  weirs  by  the  Indians  and 
by  the  white  men  with  drift-nets  150  to  250  feet  long. 
Salmon  of  80  pounds'  weight  have  been  reported  at  Fort 
Reliance.  A  few  king  salmon  ascend  the  rapids  and  can- 
yon as  far  as  the  foot  of  Marsh  Lake,  but  it  is  not  proba- 
ble that  many,  after  their  exhausting  journey  of  nearly 
two  thousand  miles,  almost  or  quite  without  food,  ever 
reach  the  sea  alive  again.  By  August  the  biggest  of 
the  king  salmon  have  passed  up  river.  The  "silver" 
salmon  is  the  next  run,  and  weighs  not  over  30  pounds. 
After  the  silver  is  the  third  and  most  plentiful  "run" 
of  all,  the  dog  salmon,  so  called  either  from  the  resem- 
blance of  its  teeth  to  those  canines,  or  to  the  fact  of  its 
being  the  staple  article  of  dog-food. 

The  price  of  salmon  on  June  15,  1898,  was  $2  a  pound, 
by  midsummer  25  cents  a  pound.  One  party  of  white 
men  in  the  height  of  the  king  "  run  "  in  one  day  caught 
seven  fish,  weighing  150  pounds,  for  which  they  re- 
ceived $75. 

2F  449 


!l 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

A  wrong  impression  generally  prevails  concerning  the 
Yukon  mosquito.  The  statement  will  hardly  be  credit- 
ed that  during  the  whole  summer  on  the  fiat  at  Daw- 
son I  did  not  see  a  single  one  !  On  the  islands  in  the 
river,  in  new  creeks  not  yet  cleared  of  trees,  however, 
they  were  exceedingly  numerous.  On  Bonanza  Creek, 
which  was  cleared  partially,  they  were  hardly  more  an- 
noying than  in  a  certain  town  less  than  a  thousand 
miles  from  New  York  city  where  these  words  are  being 
written.  Undoubtedly,  as  one  approaches  the  mouth 
of  the  Yukon  the  mosquitoes  grow  more  deadly,  until 
one  can  quite  believe  the  returned  missionary  who  said 
that  at  his  station  the  mosquitoes  were  so  thick  that 
when  a  man  wanted  to  tell  the  time  of  day  he  had  to 
throw  a  stick  mto  the  air  so  as  to  be  able  to  see  the 
sun !  At  the  mouth  of  the  Tanana  River  a  horse  was 
killed  in  a  single  night,  and  men  in  the  woods  without 
protection  have  been  so  blinded  by  their  stings  that  they 
have  lost  their  way.  Even  smoke  sometimes  fails  to  re- 
pel their  attacks  altogether.  When  one  is  travelling  it 
is  necessary  to  tie  a  bit  of  netting  over  the  hat-brim,  and 
when  sleeping  out-of-doors  the  face  must  be  covered  with 
netting,  and  even  then  the  sound  of  their  singing  as  they 
try  to  get  through  will  keep  a  nervous  person  awake. 

The  natives  of  the  Yukon  Valley  are  a  hunting  race, 
subsisting  in  winter  upon  the  moose  and  caribou,  and  in 
summer  upon  fish.  Out  of  the  skins  of  the  former  they 
make  their  clothes  and  the  coverings  of  their  winter 
houses;  and,  until  it  became  more  profitable  to  sell  meat 
to  the  increasing  number  of  white  men,  they  trapped 
quantities  of  furs,  which  they  sold  to  the  traders,  receiv- 
ing in  return  blankets, guns,  ammunition,  flour,  tea,  sugar, 
and  tobacco.  From  Pelly  River  down  the  tribes  are  of 
the  *' Athapaskan  "  branch  of  the  Tinnd- Apache  family 

450 


THE    KLONDIKE    INDIANS 

of  North  American  Indians,  but  towards  the  mouth 
of  the  Yukon  the  Indians  are  replaced  by  Eskimos, 
whose  villages  continue  at  short  intervals  to  Behring 
Sea. 


INDIANS'   WINTER    ENCAMPMENT   ON   THE   KLONDIKE    K'VEK 


The  Indians  of  the  Klondike  River,  numbering  about 
seventy  souls,  are  known  to  themselves  as  "  Tro-chu-tin," 
and  their  river  as  the  "  Tron-duk,"  of  which  the  miners' 
"  Klondike  "  is  a  corruption. 

In  their  summer  costume,  these  Indians  affect  "store" 
clothes,  the  men  imitating  the  miners,  even  to  their  broad, 
gray,  cow-boy  hats ;  while  the  women  imitate  their  white 
sisters  to  a  corresponding  degree  in  dresses  and  jackets 
from  the  well-filled  stores  of  the  trader.  In  winter,  how- 
ever, when  hunting,  one  sees  them  in  their  former  wild 
picturesqueness.  The  men  wear  legging-trousers  with 
moccasins,  made  in  one  garment,  of  caribou  skin  with 
hair  inside,  and  worn  next  to  the  skin  ;  a  shirt  of  the  same 
or  rabbit  skin,  or  of  blanket-stuff,  which  in  vividness  and 
variety  of  color  rivals  the  spectrum ;  a  sable  or  beaver 

451 


'I 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

cap,  and  large  pocket-like  mittens  of  rabbit  or  caribou 
skin,  with  hair  inside,  or  muosehide  lined  with  lynx  fur. 

The  house-dress  of  the  women  is  made  of  calico  or 
cloth.  Over  this,  when  travelling,  they  wear  a  volumi- 
nous dress  reaching  half-way  from  the  knees  to  the 
ground,  with  a  large  hood,  which  can  be  pulled  over  the 
head,  but  is  used  more  often  as  a  receptacle  for  the 
baby;  while  a  kerchief  of  fancy  cotton  or  silk  is  tied 
around  the  head.    The  children  dress  entirely  in  furs,  the 


KLONDIKE   INDIANS    GOING   AFTER    FAI.I.FN    MOOSF.   WITH    TOBOGGANS 


boys  wearing  legging-trousers  and  deerskin  shirts,  ov  par- 
kas provided  with  hoods,  the  mittens  of  the  very  smallest 
being  sewed  fast  to  the  sleeves ;  while  the  girls  wear  gar- 
ments like  those  of  their  mothers.  When  so  rigged  they 
roll  about  in  the  snow  at  play  as  unmindful  of  cold  as 

452 


MOOSIC    HUNT!  N(i 

polar  bears.  Every  Indian  village  has  a  plentiful  assort- 
ment of  native  "  wolf"  or  ICskimodojfs.  These  are  mainly 
employed  to  haul  their  toboggans  of  birch-wood,  on  which 


INTERIOR   OF   INDIAN   SKIN-HOUSE 

are  placed  all  their  goods,  including  even  the  babies  and 
small  pups,  when  they  travel  from  place  to  place  in  pur- 
suit of  the  moose  and  caribou.  The  winter's  hunt  lasts 
several  months,  and  the  whole  village,  including  old  men, 
women,  and  nursing  babes,  accompany  the  hunters.  The 
winter  houses  are  made  of  caribou  skins  sewed  together 
to  make  a  rounded  cover  and  hauled  over  a  dome-shaped 
frame  of  bent  poles  set  into  a  ridge  of  snow  banked  up 
in  the  form  of  an  ellipse  eighteen  feet  long  by  twelve 
feet  wide,  the  ground  inside  being  covered  with  spruce 
boughs.  A  large  ht)le  is  left  overhead  for  the  smoke  of 
the  camp-fire  to  ascend.     The  hunters  go  ahead  upon 

453 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 


snow-shoes,  while  the  women  follow  with  the  camp  equip- 
ment to  a  designated  spot,  generally  six  or  seven  miles 
distant,  where  they  make  camp.  The  moose  is  surround- 
ed in  its  feeding-ground  by  a  band  of  eight  or  more  hunt- 
ers, who  are  generally  able  to  secure  a  quick  shot  as  it 
runs,  although  some  of  the  best  hunters  prefer  to  stalk 
and  shoot  the  moose  as  it  lies  in  its  bed  in  the  snow. 
The  meat  is  hauled  to  camp  by  dogs,  and  the  hides 
dressed  by  the  women.  The  traders  supply  them  with 
modern  repeating  rifles,  which  they  use  with  a  success 
that  is  not  remarkable  when  one  considers  that  only  a 
few  years  ago  they  had  no  more  effective  weapons  than 
bows  and  arrows  and  stout  spears.  The  snow-shoes  are 
long  and  narrow,  with  upturned  toes,  the  frame  being  of 
white  birch,  filled  with  caribou-skin  webbing. 

Their  canoes  are  made  of  birch-bark,  but  in  construc- 
tion are  less  like  the  birch  canoe  of  the  East  than  the 
Eskimo  kyak,  or  skin -boat.  They  are  slender  and 
graceful  in  appearance,  with  high,  upturned  ends,  the 
forward  part  being  decked  over  with  bark  for  about  five 
feet.  Like  the  kyak,  a  man's  canoe  usually  carries  but 
one  grown  person  ;  the  women's  or  family  canoe  is  not 
decked  over  and  is  somewhat  larger.  The  occupant  sits 
in  the  middle  of  the  canoe  and  propels  it  skilfully  by 
means  of  a  single-bladed  paddle  deftly  dipped  from  side 
to  side.  When  going  up-stream  in  shallow  water  the 
canoe-man  uses  two  slender  poles,  one  in  each  hand, 
with  which  he  digs  his  way  along. 


CHAPTER   XXIII 


Last  Steamer  for  St.  Michael— Forty-Mile— "  Eagle  City"— "Star"  and 

"  Seventy-Mile  "  Cities 


o 


N  the  i6th  day  of  September  ice  was 
making  in  the  gulches,  and  what 
was  thought  to  be  the  last  steam- 
boat which  could  reach  St.  Michael  and  con- 
nect with  the  ocean  vessel  for  home  before 
navigation  closed  left  Dawson  with  a  mill- 
ion and  a  half  in  gold-dust  and  a  goodly  number  of 
passengers,  who  chose  the  longer  route  by  Behring  Sea 
to  the  now  quicker  route  by  which  we  had  entered  the 
Yukon  a  year  before.  Our  journey  —  the  ten  days  by 
river  on  the  JoJin  Cudahy,  fastest  of  river -boats,  the 
grand  scenery,  the  native  villages  and  settlements  of 
historic  interest  along  the  Yukon,  the  ten  days  of  wait- 
ing at  bleak  St.  Michael  for  an  ocean  steamer  to  ap- 
pear, the  incidents  on  shipboard,  the  brief  stay  amid  the 
incomparable  glacier -topped  mountains  and  land-locked 
inlets  of  Unalaska,  with  its  sea-birds,  Aleuts,  and  smoking 
volcanoes,  the  six-day  ocean  voyage  to  Seattle,  and  the 
fiiaal  adieus  to  friends  and  companions  in  hunger  and 
plenty,  in  misery  and  good-fortune — all  these  were  a  fitting 
close  to  sixteen  months  of  an  experience  that  none  of  us 
can  hope  to  see  repeated  in  a  lifetime.  A  life  of  freedom 
and  adventure  has  a  fascination  which  grows  rather  than 
diminishes,  and  yet  the  privations  that  every  person  who 
went  into  Klondike  endured  taught  him  better  to  separate 

455 


\ 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 


t1 


the  good  from  the  bad,  the  essential  from  the  non-essential^ 
and  to  recognize  the  real  blessings  and  comforts  of  civiliza- 
tion. This  imperfect  story  of  what  I  saw  of  one  of  the  most 
remarkable  movements  of  people  in  the  history  of  the 
world  cannot  come  to  a  close  without  more  particular 
reference  to  what  has  been  taking  place,  not  only  in  Klon- 
dike proper,  but  in  our  own  American  territory.  It  has 
been  shown  that  the  great  "mineral  belt,"  rich  not  only 
in  gold,  but  in  copper,  silver,  coal,  and  other  minerals, 
continues  westward  to  the  very  sands  of  the  beaches  of 
Behring  Sea,  embracing  a  vast  territory,  which,  together 
with  that  of  the  unexplored  rivers  of  the  Canadian  Yukon, 
will,  it  is  safe  to  predict,  furnish  a  field  for  prospecting 
during  the  life  of  this  generation. 

During  the  winter  of  1897-98,  Forty-Mile,  Birch  Creek, 
and  other  streams  on  the  American  side  of  the  141st  me- 
ridian, were  relocated  by  new  men,  chiefly  in  claims  of  1320 
feet,  or  twenty  acres,  the  extreme  limit  allowed  under  the 
United  States  law.  Not  much  work  has  yet  been  done, 
the  creeks,  on  account  of  the  lower-grade  earth,  being 
regarded  as  "company," or  hydraulicking,  "propositions." 
The  International  Boundary  crosses  Forty-Mile  River 
twenty-three  rnilcs  atxjve  its  mouth,  and  has  been  clearly 
cut  out  by  Mr.  Ogilvie  to  a  point  on  the  Yukon  forty 
miles  below  Forty-Mile,  The  Canadian  Forty-Mile  min- 
ing district  includes  the  head  of  Sixty  -  Mile.  Nothing 
startlingly  large  vras  found  on  Forty-Mile  until  Miller 
Creek,  Sixty -Mile,,  wa.s  discovered  by  O.  C,  otherwise 
"  Kink,"  Miller,  in  1892,  from  which  the  next  year  eighty 
men  took  out  $100,000,  In  1896  a  German-Swiss,  John- 
nie Miiller,  took  $12,000  out  of  No.  17  below  Discovery, 
so  that  he  was  able  to  deposit  at  San  Francisco  286 
pounds  of  gold,  for  which  he  received  $54,639,  besides 
paying  about  $13,000  in  wages;  while  Charlie  Anderson 

456 


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SKAGWAY.    FKniMAKv,  i 


^■srS^;^".- '    .,    ^.^7"' 


;:#-ift 


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wAGWAY.     FF.nir\KV,  tSc/j 


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■^ 


CIRCLE    CITY 

and  another  took  out  $17,000  more.  The  output  of  Forty- 
Mile  in  1896  was  $460,000.  The  present  town  contains 
about  two  hundred  cabins,  and  probably  fewer  persons. 

Fifty  miles  below  Forty -Mile,  at  the  mouth  of  Mis- 
sion Creek,  on  tributaries  of  which  gold  was  first  found 
in  1895,  r.  town  was  laid  ofif  by  twenty -eight  miners  on 
the  28th  of  jNIay,  1898,  and  named  "Eagle  City."  Cabin- 
sites  were  allotted  by  drawing  numbered  slips  of  paper 
out  of  a  hat.  About  a  thousand  persons  wintered  there, 
and  it  has  been  selected  as  a  United  States  military  post. 
Thirty  miles  below  Mission  Creek,  at  the  mouth  of 
Seventy-Mile  Creek,  a  stream  150  miles  long,  that  in  1888 
paid  $50  per  day  to  men  with  rockers,  a  town-site  was  laid 
ofif,  in  the  winter  of  1897-98,  and  called  "  Star  City."  In 
the  spring  it  was  flooded,  so  another  town  was  start- 
ed two  miles  above  on  the  Yukon,  called  "  Seventy-Mile 
City,"  with  a  population  of  two  or  three  hundred. 

Two  hundred  and  fifteen  miles  below  Dawson  the  Yu- 
kon enters  the  "Yukon  Flats,"  an  ancient  lake-bed   a 
hundred  miles  in   width   and  about  two   hundred  and 
fifty  miles  long,  through  which  the  river  courses,  spread- 
ing out  in  a  maze  of  channels  to  an  extreme  width  of 
ten  miles.     Seven  miles  beyond  the  head  of  the  Flats, 
straggling  for  two  miles  along  a  low  bluff,  is  Circle  City,  a 
town  of  about  three  hundred  cabins,  including  the  stores 
of  the  two  old  companies,  office  of  the  United  States 
Commissioner,  a  government  school,  an  Episcopal  mis- 
sion, and  a  miners'  association,  with  a  library  of  one  thou- 
sand volumes.     Government  is  represented  by  the  Com 
missioner,  two  customs  officers,  a  deputy  internal  reve- 
nue collector,  a  deputy  marshal,  and  a  postmaster.     The 
first  Commissioner,  Hon.  John  B.  Crane,  entered  upon  his 
duties  on  October  2,  1897.     The  Birch  Creek  diggings, 
lying  from  thirty  to  eighty  miles  back  of  Circle  City, 

457 


9" 


W 


THE   KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 

were  discovered  in  1892  by  two  Russian  half-breeds,  Pitka 
and  Sorresco.  Next  year  Henry  Lewis,  John  McLeod, 
and  Gus  Williams  worked  "Pitka's  Bar"  with  such  re- 
sults that  when  the  news  reached  Forty-Mile,  where  the 
season  had  not  been  an  encouraging  one,  eighty  men, 
or  about  half  the  population,  were  given  outfits  on  credit 
by  McQuesten,  and  descended  to  a  point  on  the  Yukon 
twelve  miles  above  the  present  Circle  City,  and  establish- 
ed a  town,  which  they  named  "Circle  City,"  from  its 
supposed  proximity  to  the  Arctic  Circle  (it  was  really 
somewhat  to  the  southward).  The  spring  following 
several  cabins  were  washed  away,  so  the  town  was  moved 
to  its  present  site.  That  winter  Mammoth,  Mastodon, 
Hog'em,  Greenhorn,  and  Independence  creeks  were  pros- 
pected, yielding  $9000.  Other  creeks  were  added,  and, 
in  1895,  the  output  was  $400,000,  with  a  population  of  700. 
In  1896  the  output  was  $900,000,  for  a  total  population  of 
900.  Regarding  the  future  of  this  district,  abandoned 
for  Klondike,  Samuel  C.  Dunham,  United  States  Labor 
Statistician,  who  spent  the  winter  of  1897-98  in  Circle 
City,  makes  this  remarkable  report : 

"The  prediction  is  here  made,  based  on  authentic  information, 
that  the  ten  miles  of  ground  on  Mastodon  and  Mammoth  (which 
are  one  creek  except  in  designation)  already  prospected,  will 
eventually  produce  as  much  gold  as  any  successive  ten  miles  on 
Bonanza,  while  the  ten  claims  on  Mastodon,  from  4  below  to  5 
above  Discovery,  inclusive,  will  without  doubt  prove  as  productive 
as  any  ten  claims  on  Eldorado,  taken  in  their  numerical  order. 
Furthermore,  on  account  of  the  even  distribution  of  gold  in  the 
Birch  Creek  district,  the  output  here,  extending  over  a  longer 
period  of  time  and  employing  larger  numbers  of  men,  will  be  of 
incalculably  greater  economic  benefit  to  the  community  than  the 
more  phenomenal  production  of  the  creeks  in  the  Klondike 
district." 

458 


SBF 


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ma 


1\ 


I  1 


I 


m 


TWiif- 


aWV*'  Jm»  J  mA 


kc  «mi  Xndian  River  6old  fietde 

agt    at  Diwsoo-,    Oxircfed-   tf   ^eptembia  /89S. 


!   ! 


LITTLE    MINOOK 

Less  than  a  thousand  wintered  in  1898-99  at  Circle 
City. 

At  Fort  Hamlin,  an  Alaska  Commercial  Company  post, 
the  river  enters  the  mountains,  or  "Lower  Ramparts." 
Fifty  miles  farther,  at  the  mouth  of  Minook  Creek,  is 
"Ramp,  it  City,"  established  in  the  fall  of  1897  chiefly 
by  a  number  of  intending  miners,  who  had  started  for 
Klondike  on  various  regular  and  specially  chartered 
steamers,  and  were  fro/en  in  and  staked  a  number  of 
creeks  tributary  to  and  in  the  neighborhood  of  Minook 
Creek,  a  stream  on  which  fine  gold  had  been  found  in 
1882.  In  1893  John  Minook,  a  Russian  half-breed,  found 
the  fir.'-.L  coarse  gold  on  Little  Minook,  a  tributary  of  Big 
Minook.  In  1896  there  were  seven  men  at  work  ;  in  the 
spring  ot  1897  thirteen  men  cleaned  up  122  ounces  of 
gold.  Of  the  three  hundred  and  fifty  "stranded"  men  who 
wintered  there  in  1897-98,  only  eighty-five  did  any  pros- 
pecting or  work,  and  that  was  mainly  on  five  claims  on 
Little  Minook,  which  cleaned  up  about  $110,000,  of  which 
$43,000  came  from  No.  6  above  Discovery.  In  April, 
1898,  an  Idaho  miner,  named  Range,  discovered  bench- 
diggings  of  value  on  a  hill  between  two  tributaries  of 
Minook,  naming  it  "Idaho  Bar,"  and  other  "  bars"  were 
subsequently  discovered  in  similar  situations.  During 
the  winter  of  1898-99,  a  large  part  of  the  population, 
then  numbering  about  a  thousand,  stampeded  to  the 
headwaters  of  the  Koyukuk  River,  where  a  number  of 
parties  had  gone  the  fall  before.  But  nothing  impor- 
tant appears  to  have  resulted. 

The  most  significant  discovery  was  made  on  the  Neu- 
kluk  River,  a  tributary  thirty  miles  from  the  mouth  of 
Fish  River — a  stream  150  miles  long  and  navigable  for 
steamboats  —  which  enters  Golovin  Bay,  Behring  Sea, 
one  hundred  miles  north  of  St.  Michael.     In  1895  traces 

459 


THE  KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 


1 


oi  coarse  gold  were  discovered  on  the  Neukluk  by  one 
Johansen,  a  miner  who  was  "grub-staked"  by  Edwin 
Englestad,  a  trader  of  Unalaklik  and  St.  Michael.  In 
the  winter  of  1897-98,  several  parties,  consisting  mainly 
of  some  miners  who  had  reached  St.  Michael  on  vessels 
of  too  deep  draught  to  enter  the  Yukon,  prospected  and 
found  gold.  W.  F.  Melsing,  of  San  Francisco,  made  the 
first  discovery  of  importance,  in  March,  at  the  mouth 
of  "Melsing  Creek,"  and  A.  P.  Mordaunt,  of  the  same 
city,  found  even  better  ditr^ings  on  "  Ophir  Creek  "  and 
its  tributaries,  "  Dutch  "  and  "  Sweetcake  "  creeks.  Ophir 
Creek  showed  $2  to  the  pan,  the  diggings  being  shallow. 
Three  men,  with  a  rocker  built  out  of  baking-powder 
packing-cases,  rocked  out  $1500  in  eleven  or  twelve  days, 
and  $70  in  two  days.  During  the  summer  about  two 
hundred  persons  outfitted  at  St.  Michael  for  the  new 
diggings,  and  located  other  tributaries  of  the  Neukluk. 
"Coimcil  City,"  eighteen  miles  up  the  Neukluk,  was  the 
centre  of  the  new  diggings,  and  consisted,  in  May,  1898, 
of  two  dwellings — a  log  cabin  and  a  tent.  Not  much 
work  was  done  until  the  following  winter,  when  a  num- 
ber of  claims  were  opened  up.  In  the  spring  the  first 
steamer  arriving  at  Seattle  from  St.  Michael  brought  re- 
ports of  large  clean-ups  at  Council  City,  but  these  .vere 
accompanied  by  other  news  of  so  sensational  a  character 
that  in  the  published  reports  Golovin  Bay  and  Fish  River 
were  lost  sight  of.  This  was  no  less  than  the  discovery 
during  the  winter  of  immensely  rich  gold  deposits  on 
Snake  River,  eighty  miles  west  of  Golovin  Bay,  followed 
by  the  discovery  of  gold  ///  t/w  beach  sand  oi  Behring  Sea 
at  Cape  Nome.  The  most  reliable  account  of  the  dis- 
covery appears  to  be  as  follows  : 

In   September,  1898,  H.  L.   Blake,"  partner  of  W.  F. 
Melsing,  learned  through  an  Eskimo   of  gold  at  Cape 

460 


■1 


pi 

r 

1        j 

J 

1 

5 

'    1  i 

11 


It' 


1 


"ANVIL    CITY" 

Nome,  and  in  company  with  Rev.  J.  O.  Hultberg,  a 
Swedish  evangelical  missionary  from  Golovin  Bay,  Chris- 
topher Kimber,  and  Frank  Porter,  went  up  Snake  River, 
and  on  "Anvil  Creek"  discovered  gold  that  ran  $4  to  the 
pan,  but  did  not  stake,  intending  to  keep  their  discovery 
secret  and  return  in  the  spring  with  provisions  and  out- 


ROCKING  GOLD  ON  SHORES   OF   liEHRING   SEA,  AT  CAI'E   NOME,  OCT.  3,  189c) 


fits.  The  Rev.  Mr.  Hultberg  gave  the  information  to 
a  fellow -missionary  named  Anderson,  who  immediately 
organized  a  party  of  seven,  and,  braving  the  storms  of 
that  season,  set  out  for  Cape  Nome,  and  found  on  Anvil 
Creek  even  richer  diggings  than  Blake's,  staked  claims, 
returned  to  Council  City,  and  claimed  the  honor  of  dis- 
covery. The  secret  being  out,  there  was  a  stampede 
from  all  the  region  around  about.     Four  hundred  men 

461 


THE    KLONDIKE    STAMPEDE 


I 


reached  Nome  by  January,  where  they  lived  in  tents  till 
spring.  The  sufferings  of  the  miners,  some  of  whom 
had  come  two  hundred  miles  overland  from  Kotzebue 
Sound,  were  intense.  Many  tributaries  of  Snake  River 
were  staked,  and  a  city  known  as  "  Anvil  City  "  laid  out 
at  the  mouth  of  Snake  River.  In  June  or  July,  1899, 
gold  was  discovered  in  the  sand  of  the  beach.  When 
the  news  reached  Dawson  eight  thousand  men  left  that 
place  inside  of  a  week.  On  October  ist  Anvil  City,  or 
"  Nome  City,"  at  the  mouth  of  Snake  River,  was  a  town 
of  eight  thousand  souls,  with  warehouses,  saloons,  thea- 
tres, tents,  and  cabins  extending  for  four  miles  along  the 
beach.  Many  miles  of  creeks  and  the  beach  for  thirteen 
miles  were  staked  in  claims,  the  beach  gold  being  secured 
with  rockers.  The  output  of  the  whole  region,  includ- 
ing Fish  River,  for  the  summer  is  estimated  at  $2,000,000 
— much  more  than  the  Klondike  for  its  first  year ;  and 
if  the  diggings  prove  as  extensive  as  supposed  Klondike 
will  be  surpassed.  In  the  spring  it  is  expected  that  not 
less  than  thirty  or  forty  thousand  persons  will  reach  the 
new  diggings,  which  are  comparatively  easy  of  access. 


A  final  glance  at  the  upper  Yukon.  Diggings  promis- 
ing some  richness  were  discovered  in  the  summer  of  1898 
at  Atlin  Lake,  a  connection  of  the  Taku  Arm  of  Tagish 
Lake.  This  field,  only  seventy-five  miles  from  Skagway, 
is  in  British  Columbia,  and  that  pti  ince  immediately 
passed  an  "alien"  law,  to  prevent  ai  y  but  Canadians 
from  holding  claims  there.  There  was  no  Gold  Commis- 
sioner at  the  start,  records  became  hopelessly  confused, 
and  finally  a  special  commission  had  to  be  appointed  to 
try  to  straighten  the  affairs  out. 

As  this  goes  to  press,  the  output  for  the  third  clean-up 
at  Klondike  is  reported  at  twenty  millions,  taken  almost 

462 


DAWSON 


wholly  from  the  creeks  previously  described.  Dawson 
has  a  population  of  ten  thousand,  with  brick  houses,  an 
electric  tramway  under  way  up  Bonanza  Creek,  and  a 
telegraph  line  U>  Skagway.  The  railroad  is  being  ex- 
tended towards  White  Horse  Rapids,  Avhere  a  lode  of 
copper  has  been  reported.  A  few  days  after  the  Cape 
Nome  stampede,  cabins  that  had  previously  been  valued 
at  $500  or  more  were  to  be  had  for  the  taking.  The 
town  has  been  much  improved  in  appearance,  and  there 
are  many  desirable  features  of  social  life — such  as  clubs 
— that  did  not  exist  before.  At  the  present  moment  the 
life  of  Dawson,  as  an  important  mining  camp,  is  limited 
by  that  of  the  half-dozen  creeks  that  have  been  herein 
described,  unless  rich  quartz  ledges  have  meanwhile  been 
discovered  and  developed. 

The  time  by  single  dog  team  from  Dawson  to  Skag- 
way has  been  reduced  to  ten  days.  By  relays  of  dogs 
between  the  pplice  stations  the  mounted  police  have 
carried  letters  in  nine  days.  "Jack"  Carr,  the  United 
States  mail  carrier,  referring  to  the  wonderful  change 
that  has  taken  place  in  these  years,  is  reported  to  have 
said:  "If  any  one  had  told  me  a  person  could  make  the 
trip  in  winter  from  Dawson  to  Skagway  without  lighting 
a  match  I  couldn't  have  believed  it." 


I 


'i 


'■ 


I 


«i 


APPENDIX 


r 


A 


TYPICAL    ONK-YKAR    OUTFIT    FOR     ONK     MAN,    SUPPLIBD 
BY   THE    ALASKA    COMMERCIAL    COMPANY   AT    DAWSON,    IN 

JUNK,   1897 

Articles  P'**'^" 

c;oo  pounds  Hour,  $6  per  sack  of  50  pounds $60.00 

..1  ...      10.00 

80  beans ^ 

25       "      pease •  = 

25       "       rolled  oats ^-^5 

15       "       corn-meal -^  '■' 

I  case  condensed  milk,  4  <l<>'e»  i-po^i'i^l  cans 24.<xJ 

I     "    cabbage,  2  dozen  2-pound  cans 12.00 

I     "     roast  beef,  i  dozen  2-pound  cans 9-"" 

1     "     corned  beef,  i  dozen  2-pound  cans 9"" 

I     "    sausage  meat,  2  dozen  2pound  cans i8'<xj 

I     "     turkey,  2  dozen  2-pound  cans ^2.00 

I     "     tomatoes,  2  dozen  2^-pound  cans i"'^ 

.      T     "    strinc  beans,  2  dozen  2-pound  cans 12.00 

,                                                                           ...  30.00 

75  pounds  bacon ^^ 

50   '•   If:";---- :;;   6:25 

25       "       dried  apples ^^ 

25       "       dried  prunes _" 

25       "       dried  peaches ^-5 

25       "       dried  apricots ^ 

25       "       raisins  or  grapes •  -^ 

100       "       granulated  sugar ^    ^^ 

I  keg  pickles,  5  gallons '^ 

I    "    sauerkraut,  5  gallons ^=-  ^ 

5  gallons  maple-syrup ^^ 

25  pounds  evaporated  potatoes -  ^^ 

15       "       cheese ^^  ^ 

20       '        coffee 

20  461 


'fll 


[II 


■11 


1  i 


APPENDIX 


A    TYl'ICAI.    ONE-YKAR    OUTFIT— CoiUiwa;/ 

Akticlb-s  Pricb 

5  pounds  black  tea $(>.  25 

5  "      chocolate 3. 75 

2  bottles  lime-juice 4.(K) 

6  "       Worcestershire  sauce 4.50 

30  pounds  liird y.oo 

1  box  macaroni,  12  pounds 2.00 

12  pounds  mince-meat I2.(XJ 

2  pairs  rubber  boots 18.00 

I  tin  assorted  cakes,  36  pounds 10.00 

4  boxes  candles,  120  to  the  box 24.00 

I  case  baking  powder,  2  dozen  ^pound  cans 12.00 

6  bars  washing-soap 1,00 

5  "    toilet  soap i.tx) 

1 5  pounds  salt 1.50 

1  case  coal-oil,  10  gallons 12.00 

2  lamp  chimneys .50 

100  feet  rope,  three-fourths  or  seven-eighths  inch iS.cxj 

1  five-foot  bull-saw 6.00 

2  bull-saw  files i .  50 

1  pair  Arctic  overshoe.-^ 4.50 

2  pairs  felt  shoes 5.(5<j 

4     "    woollen  socks 4.00 

2     "    moccasins 5.00 

2     "    seal  water-boots,  or  mukluks 5  .cx) 

6  "    skin  mittens 15.00 

Total *55<>.25 


II 


PRICES  PAID  FOR  GOODS  AT  DAWSON,  OUTSIDE  OF  THE 
STORES  OP  THE  TWO  PRINCIPAL  TRADING  COMPANIES 
DURING    WINTER    OP    1897-98 


! 


Candles,  ^i  each  ;  8^40  per  box  of  120  ;  Kerosene,  (^40  per  gallon. 
Yukon  sheet-steel  stoves,  with  three  joints  pipe,  (^40  to  $75. 
Yukon  sled,  !^40  ;  basket  sleigh,  $75. 
1  )ogs,  up  to  $400  each. 

Horses,  1^3400  per  pair  ;  native  hay,  $500  to  )|!i2()()  per  ton. 
Moccasins,  moose-hide,  native-made,  $7;  formerly  50  cents  per  pair. 
Moccasins,  (.Canadian  moose-hide,  ^12  jier  |)air. 
Mittens,  native  moose-hide,  $6  to  !|!io  per  pair. 

466 


Pkilb 

$6.25 

3-75 

4.tK) 

4-5" 
9.00 

2.CK) 
12.(X) 
18.00 
10. (Xi 
24.00 
12.00 

1. 00 

1. 00 

1.50 

12.00 

•50 

i8.(x> 

6.00 

1.50 

450 

5-(JO-  . 

4.00 

5.00  . 

5.00 
15.00 

*55».25 

K     OF     THE 
COMPANIES 

rallon. 


mor^m 


)er  pair. 


APPENDIX 

Flour,  $100  to  !f!i20  per  sack  of  50  iiounds  in  Octoljer,  1S97  ;  $25  to  $50 
per  sack  in  January,  iSyS;  $12.50  per  sack  in  May;  $3  per  sack  in 
June,  1898. 

Oysters,  about  i-i)oun(l  tin,  fiS  to  $25  each. 

Men's  (leer  skin  "  jiarkas,"  !J!5o  to  !|!ioo;  Kidies'  niink-skiit  "parkas," 
$I(X);  ladies'  tailor-made  cloth  jackets,  $65  ;  men's  suit  clothes,  custom- 
made,  $135  to  $150;  trousers,  not  le.ss  than  f^y)  per  ]iair;  mink  or 
marten  caps,  $20;  drill  "parkas,"  with  fox-tail  around  hood,  $7  for 
making; ;  fur  robes,  !Jii5o  to  !|!4(jo  each  ;  snow-shoes,  $30  per  pair. 

Washing,  50  cents  per  piece  ;  white  shirts,  $1.50  each. 

Tobacco,  smoking,  ij-T-So  jier  pound  ;  cigarettes,  50  cents  per  pack. 

Fresh  mutton,  $1.50  per  pound  ;  beef,  !jii  per  pouiul ;  moose,  $1  to  $1.75 
per  pound. 

F'irewood,  $35  to  $75  per  cord. 

Copy  of  Shakespeare,  .$50. 

SOME   STORE    PRICES    DURING    WINTER    OP    1897-98 

Alcohol,  $40  to  $83.25  per  gallon. 
Nails,  $500  per  keg  of  500  pounds. 
Blue  denim,  28-inch,  75  cents  per  yard;  white  muslin,  25  cents  to  50  cents 

per  yard. 
Pencils,  needles,  thread,  etc.,  25  cents  each. 
1 2-pound  blankets,  $25. 
Kepeating-rifles,  $45  each  ;  cartridges  for  same,  10  cents  each. 

WAGES    AT    DAWSON    IN    WINTER    AND    SUMMER    OP     1897-98 

Ordinary  miners,  f  i  to  $1.50  an  hour. 

Foremen  in  mines,  $15  and  upward  per  day  of  ten  hours. 

Ordinary  labor  other  than  mining,  $1  ])er  hour. 

Tin -smiths,  ,fi. 50  an   hour;   skilled   wood -workers,  *I7  per  day  of  ten 

hours;  tailors'  workmen,  $1.50  an  hour. 
Hartenders,  $15  per  ilay  ;  Ijook-keepers,  .$17.50  per  day  ;  faro-dealers,  $20 

per  day;  musicians,  $17.50  to  $20  per  day. 
Typewriters,  50  cents  ]>er  folio. 
Services   of  man  and   two-horse  team,  $10  per  hour ;    drivers,  :§!300  per 

month  and  board. 
Typesetters,  $1.50  ]ier  hour,  or  $2  per  thoiisand  ems. 
(Jooks  in   restaurants,  ,$100  per  week  and  board;    men  waiters,  $50  per 

week  and  l)oard  ;  women  waiters,  $ifK)  per  month  and  board, 
liarbers,  65  per  cent,  of  receipts  of  chair,  $15  to  $40  per  day. 

During  summer  of  1898  common  wages  fell  to  Go  cents  an  hour;  winter 
contracts,  1898-99,  for  ordinary  labor  in  mines,  Juk)  per  month  with  board. 

467 


APPENDIX 


PRICES    OF    COMMOniTIKS    AT    DAWSON'    IN    Sl'MMRR    OK    1 898 

Oranges  and  lemons,  50  cents  to  $1.50  each. 

Watermelons,  $25  each. 

Apples,  25  cents  to  |li  each. 

Champagne,  $20  to  !J!4o  per  pint;  sherry,  8^15  per  pint;  claret,  if,is  psr 

pint,  $25  per  quart  ;  ale,  $5  per  bottle  ;  mineral  water,  $2  pcr  bottle. 
Shave,  $1  ;  hair-cutting,  !fi. 50;  bath,!f2.50. 


II 


TABLB    OF   DISTANCES 

Miles 

San  Francisco  to  Dawson  ria  St.  Michael 4408  to  4629 

Seattle  to  Dawson  "  "  4018  to  4239 

"        "  Dyea  "  "  1000 

"        "  Skagway  (steamboat  route).  ...    1012 

Juneau  to  Skagway 106 

.Skagway  to  Dyea 4 

Skagway  to  Lake  Bennett  vin  White  Pass  and  Yukon  R'w'y        40 


DISTANCES   ACCORDING   TO    MR.   WILLIAM    OGILVIE  S   SURVEY 


Dyea  to  Summit  of  Chilkoot 

"  "   Lake  Lindeman ; 

"  "   Lake  Bennett  (head  of  navigation  on  the  Yukon) 

"  "   Foot  of  Tagish  Lake  (Canadian  Custom- House) 

"  "   Head  of  Miles  Canyon ^     Tramway 

"  "   Foot  of  Miles  Canyon |      operated 

"  "   Head  of  White-Horse  Rapids   j  by 

"  "   Foot  of  White-Horse  Rapids.    I        Horses 

"  "   Head  of  Lake  Labarge 

"  "  Foot  of  Lake  Labarge 

"  "  HootaIin(|ua,  or  Teslinto,  River 

'*  "  Big  Salmon  River 

•     *'  "  Little  Salmon  River 

"  "  Five-Finger  Rapids 

"  "  Felly  Ri-.er  (Fort  Selkirk) 

•*  "  Stewart  River 

"  "  Sixty-Mile  River  (Town-site  of  Ogilvie) 

"  "   Dawson  City  (Mouth  of  the  Klondike  River). 

Dawson  City  to  Forty-Mile  River 

"  "     "  International  Boundary  on  the  Y^ukon 

468 


Miles 
14.76 
23.06 
28.09 

7325 
122.94 
123.56 
124-95 

12533 
153-07 
184.22 
215.88 
24'>33 
285.54 
344' 83 
403.29 
508.91 

530.41 

575-70 

51-38 

91-73 


OF    1898 


ret,  ijits  psr 
r  bottle. 


Milks 
to  4629 
to  4239 

IIXXJ 

.     1012 

106 

4 

y      40 

S   SURVEY 

Miles 
14.76 
23.06 
2S.oq 

73-25 
122.94 
123.56 
12495 

125-33 
153-07 
184.22 
215.88 
249-33 
285-54 
344-83 
403.29 
508.91 

530.41 
575-70 

51-3S 

91-73 


APPENDIX 

APPROXIMATE    DISTANCES    BELOW    nAWSON 

MlI.RS 

Dawson  to  Circle  City 220 

"  Kort  \'ukon 303 

"         "  'ranana  ami  Weare  (Maps  ami   Descriptions  of 

Alaska,  U.  S.  (jeolog.  Sur.,  1899) 590 

"        "  St.  Michael,  supposed  dist.  (same  authority). . .  .  1490 

"        "  St.  Michael  (Map,  J.  H.  Tyrell.  1898) 1298 

"        "  St.  Michael,  estimates    of  steamboat   captains, 

as  high  as 2050 

St.  Michael  to  Anvil  City,  Cape  Nome,  a  little  over ux) 


ni 

TABLE  OP  TEMPERATURES  OBSERVED  BY  MR.  WILLIAM 
OC.ILVIE  AT  PORTY-MILE,  PROM  DECEMBER,  1 895,  TO  NO- 
VEMBER,  1896.       FAHRENHEIT    DEOREES 

Nov, 


Lowest . 
Highest. 


Dec.;  Jan. 

Veb. 

Mar. 

Apr. 

0 

-38 
49 

May  June 

0   ,     0 

—5!  30 

62'   80 

1 

July 

0 
33 
81 

Aufcf. 

0 
27 
76 

S'pt. 
0 

S 
63 

Oct. 

0 

I 

S' 

0    .      0 
-5S  -68 
-6        6 

0 
-64 

32 

0 
—37 
40 

o 

-38 

22 


TABLES     OF     TEMPERATURES,     FROM     SPECIAL     REPORT     OF 

THE   UNITED  STATES  C.EOLOGICAL  SURVEY.       FAHRENHEIT 

DEGREES 

LOWEST   TKMrERATUK.ES 


Station 


Jan.  Feb.  Mar.  Apr.iMay  June 


St.  Mich.iel [—47—55 

Fort  Reliance  (near  Dawson)} — 80 — 72 


J  ul  y  Aug.  I  S'pt.  I  Oct.  j  Nov.  Dec, 

o 


— 3i)|— 27I  —2    22       33 
-361      loj     16     ..       .. 


—24 

—50 


o 

—43 

-69 


HIGHEST   TEMPKUAIURES 

Nov. 

Station 

1  )an,  Feb. 

Mar.|  Apr. 

May 

June'  July'Auij.ls'pt. 

Oct. 

Dec. 

St.  Michael 

Fort  Reliance  (near 

Da 

^44 

vson)    20 

0 
4J 
27 

0 
43 
45 

0 
46 
59 

0 

57 
76 

75 

0 
75 

0  ,     0 
69  1  6g 
..    1  67 

0 
54 
55 

0 
42 

36 

0 
45 
34 

PRECIPITATION    (rAIN   AND  SNOW)   IN  INCHES 

Station 


Jan.    !l"eb 


Juneau 1 10.17  [4.98 

ft.  Reliance  (nr.  Dawson)     7.40  11.26 


Mar.JApr.j    M.-iy    June|  )uly| Aug.js'pt.  Oct.  |Nov.|nec. 


7.204.49 
i.i3j0.o8 


10. 28 
0.69 


5.45  6.41  7.14  7.82 
■•    I    •■   I   ••     5-. 30 


6.26  7.95 
0.79:2.93 


7.2S 
1.78 


469 


Ftea^^i****:^^*: 


A  1'  V  K  N  I)  I  X 


TK-MPKRATURR   OHSRRVRO  AT  CFRCI.K   CITY,   1897.       FAIIRRN- 

HKIT   lJK(iRKi:s 


llit,'lie«t,  at  S  A.M. 
l.llWC'Sl 

Mean 


on. 

Ni)v. 

0 

0 

1" 

ao 

>8 
8 

—40 
—7 

lll'C, 


26 

—34 

—6 


IV 


■^   1 


111 


UNITRD    STATRS    Mir.ITARY    IN  ALASKA 

On  October  29,  1897,  by  order  of  the  Secretary  of  War,  all  the 
land  and  islands  within  a  radius  of  one  hundred  miles  from  St. 
Michael  Island  was  declared  a  military  reservation  and  named 
"Fort  St.  Michael."  Other  military  posts  have  been  established 
at  Tanana,  Circle  City,  Eagle  City,  Dyea,  and  VVrangell. 


¥ 


THE    BOCNDARY    DISPUTE 

In  1867  the  United  States  i  cquired  by  purchase  the  territory 
held  by  the  Russians  in  North  Aa.'rica.  The  boundary  between 
Russian  America  and  the  British  Possessions  had  previously  been 
defined  in  a  treaty  between  ()rt:\t  Britain  and  Russia,  naming  the 
141st  meridian,  from  the  Arctic  Ocean  to  Mount  St.  Elias,  thence 
southward  along  the  summit  of  a  range  of  mountains.  The  first 
attempt  by  the  United  States  to  locate  the  boundary  was  made 
in  1869,  when  Captain  Raymond,  U.  S.  A.,  ascended  the  Yukon  to 
the  Porcupine  River,  and  by  rough  observations  discovered  Fort 
Yukon, a  Hudson's  Bay  Co.'spost.tobein  American  territory.  No 
further  attempt  was  made  by  any  one  until  Lieutenant  Schwatka, 
in  1883,  roughly  located  the  line  at  "  Boundary  Butte,"  at  the  mouth 
of  Mission  Creek.  In  1887  the  Canadian  government  sent  a  party 
of  exploration  into  the  Yukon,  and  instructed  Mr.  William  Ogil- 
vie  to  make  astronomical  observations  and  locate  th«  boundary. 
In  the  winter  of  1887-88  Mr,  Ogilvie  built  an  observatory  on  the 
Yukon,  below  Forty-Mile,  and  located  the  line  nine  miles  to  the 
eastward  of  Schwatka's  line.    To  verify  this,  the  United  States, 

470 


.1 


; 


A  im'1':nm)IX 

in  i8Sy,  sent  two  members  of  tlic  Coast  and  (ieodctic  Survey. 
Messrs.  Turner  and  Maj^ratli,  wlio  located  the  line  to  tlic  westward 
of  Ogilvie,  but  a  revision  of  Maijralirs  lij^ures  sh<jwed  the  line  to 
be  rast  of  Ogiivie's.  Meanwhile  Forty-Mile  Creek,  which  lay 
on  both  sides  of  the  supposed  bcnindary,  was  attaininj^  such  im- 
portance that  the  Canadian  government  entered  into  corresi)ond- 
ence  with  the  United  States  government  with  a  view  to  tiie  ap- 
pointment of  commissioners  to  meet  and  finally  decide  upon  the 
line.  In  i8c)6,  Mr.  Ogilvie,  the  Canadian  commissioner,  pro- 
ceeded to  l!ie  Yukon,  expecting  to  meet  a  commissioner  from  the 
United  States,  but,  none  appearing,  he  alone  cut  out  the  present 
line,  which  has  been  accepted  by  the  miners  as  linal.  As  respects 
the  southern  coast  of  Alaska,  however,  the  wording  of  the  treaty  is 
not  so  clear.  The  line  laid  down  upon  all  maps  followed  the  crest 
of  a  range  of  mountains  parallel  with  the  coast-line,  some  distance 
inland,  and  is  shown  as  crossing  Lake  Lindeman.  Neither  the 
United  States  nor  Canada  seems  to  have  considered  the  exact 
location  of  this  part  of  the  lineof  much  importance  until  the  dis- 
covery of  the  Klondike,  when  it  became  desirable  for  Canada  to 
obtain  a  port  by  which  she  could  enter  the  Yukon  without 
crossing  American  territory.  Upon  the  failure  of  her  various 
attempts  to  put  through  a  feasible  "  all -Canadian  "  route  into 
the  Yukon,  Canada  vigorously  asserted  her  right,  by  interpreta- 
tion (jf  the  treaty,  to  the  possession  of  Dyeaand  Skagway,  at  the 
head  of  Lynn  Canal,  claiming  that  the  canals  or  fjords  which  in- 
dent the  coast  of  Alaska  merely  cut  into  but  do  not  break  the 
"continuous  range  of  mountains"  designated  as  the  boundary, 
and  forthwith  demanding  arbitration.  The  American  contention 
is  that  there  is  no  continuous  range  of  mountains  along  the  coast, 
although  numerous  high  peaks;  that  the  canals  or  fjords  eflectu- 
ally  break  the  continuity  of  any  range  that  might  exist,  and,  be- 
sides, they  cannot  consent  to  arbitrate  territory  that  has  been 
in  undisputed  possession  of  the  United  States  and  of  Russia. 
A  modus  Vivendi  has  been  agreed  upon  whereby  Canada  remains 
in  possession  of  her  posts  at  the  Chilkoot  and  White  Pass  and 
Chilkat  summits  pending  a  final  settlement. 


THE   END 


